Ever since its release, Thalapathy Vijay’s Varisu has been trying hard to narrow the lead with competitor Ajith Kumar’s Thunivu. Varisu collected Rs. 20 crores, Rs. 9 crores, and Rs. 8 crores over its first 3 day run as compared to Rs. 21 crores, Rs. 9 crores, and Rs. 8 crores by Thunivu. Finally, on its fourth day, Varisu has overtaken the collections of Thunivu in Tamil Nadu.
According to early estimates, the Thalapathy Vijay starrer family entertainer collected approximately Rs. 12 crores on Saturday as compared to Rs. 11 crores earned by the Ajith fronted action thriller. This takes the four-day total of Varisu at Rs. 48 crores, putting itself at on the exact same number as Thunivu. The lead that Thunivu maintained for the first 3 days has now vanished and now both the films are on the same platter.
The word of mouth will decide the Pongal winner in the long run, but early trends indicate that Varisu might just have an edge over Thunivu in the long run. Being a family entertainer, Varisu is expected to jump bigger on Sunday too, as compared to Thunivu, giving a bigger five-day weekend than the competitor. The Thalapathy Vijay film is headed at an opening weekend of at least Rs. 63 crores, as compared to the expected weekend of Rs. 61 crores of Thunivu.
The good thing about the clash is the fact that the final five-day result of both the films is good and both the films will be hitting a century in Tamil Nadu by the end of the run. It also means that both films will be successful ventures for the producers and distributors in the domestic market. The cost of Thunivu is lower than Varisu, and hence, the ROI for this Ajith Kumar film will be higher than Varisu.