A week after its release, Vijay’s Mersal continues to dominate the box office. The Atlee-directed film, produced by Sri Thenandal Films, is a blockbuster and has crossed over ₹130 crore gross worldwide during the five-day Deepavali weekend (October 18-22). Trade sources say that the film collected around ₹76 crore from over 600 screens in Tamil Nadu during this period. The only other film which collected more money in the State in such a short time period was Rajinikanth’s 2010 mega hit Enthiran .
Creating curiosity
Mersal’ s massive opening can be attributed to various reasons. The star power of Vijay helped it generate a phenomenal day one. Despite its predictable content, which lacked novelty, it helped that it released during the festival. But the post-release political controversy too has helped the film, as it created curiosity, urging people to find out for themselves. The GST dialogue and demands by the State unit of BJP that those scenes be deleted put it under the national spotlight.
The producers played a smart game; they told a Union Minister from the State that they would cut the offending scenes. It created a Mersal sympathy wave in Kollywood and generated support, cutting across political parties and stars. All big names in tinsel town led by Kamal Haasan, followed by Rajinikanth and Vishal came out strongly in support of the film. And when a BJP functionary made a reference to Vijay’s religion, it stirred the hornets’ nest. All these factored in turning an ordinary film into a blockbuster.
Chennai box office
At the Chennai box office, Mersal is reported to have done around ₹6.90 crore in five days, a new city record. The film was screened in almost 90% of the screens in the city. The hiked ticket prices + 8% LBET + GST helped in a way to garner huge numbers. This happened despite a drop in the number of screens in Chennai city, with PVR and Inox screens closing down in protest against Tamil Nadu Government’s “double taxation” policy.
In Kerala, Mersal is said to have grossed over ₹10 crore in five days, the highest for a straight Tamil film in the State, according to its distributors Global United Media. Meanwhile, everybody connected with the film, including its producer, distributors and exhibitors have gone silent after the raid on Vishal’s office.
In the overseas market, Mersal has broken the lifetime collections of Vijay’s previous hit, Theri . The film is having a dream run in the overseas markets with extraordinary collections. Trade sources say the Vijay-starrer has made nearly $5 million (₹32 crore) from the overseas markets alone. It crossed the coveted $1 million in the US, which only Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan films have done in the past. Mersal is sitting pretty at number three in US openings after Enthiran ’s $2.2 million and Kabali ’s $1.98 million.
Mersal has stormed Tamil cinema’s biggest overseas territory, Malaysia too and created a new record for a Tamil film by collecting $1,709,939 [₹11.12 crore] from October 18 to 22.
As noted trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, “It won’t be erroneous to state that Tamil film Mersal is collecting more than the two Hindi (Diwali) releases in some key international markets.”
Mersal is all set to be Vijay’s biggest ever hit and the film is said to have revived the Kollywood market.
