How Rajinikanth, 74, beat Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Vijay at the box office: All the records Coolie broke

A look at all the box office records Rajinikanth has broken with Coolie's bumper opening.

Updated on: Aug 16, 2025, 13:49:57 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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He may be 74, but Rajinikanth has just served another reminder of why he may be the biggest box office draw in India currently. His recent release, Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie, has taken a bumper start at the ticket window, breaking several box office records in the first two days itself. Here are all the records that Coolie has broken so far:

Rajinikanth's Coolie has broken several box office records.

Best opening for a Tamil film in history

Coolie earned ₹151 crore gross worldwide on its opening day. This is the biggest opening by any Tamil film ever, beating Lokesh Kanagaraj's previous film, Leo. The Vijay-starrer had earned ₹143 crore on its opening day last year.

Best opening for an Indian film in 2025

The ₹151 crore worldwide gross for Coolie is also the highest for any Indian film this year, beating the ₹80-crore mark set by Ram Charan and Shankar's Game Changer. Tied in second place is War 2, starring Jr NTR and Hrithik Roshan.

Coolie deposed Leo as the best-opening Tamil film of all time.

Fourth-best opening by an original Indian film

Among the Indian films that have secured a bigger opening than Coolie in history, only three are original films - RRR ( ₹223 crore), Kalki 2898 AD ( ₹178 crore), and Salaar ( ₹158 crore). The others - Pushpa 2, Baahubali 2, and KGF 2 are all sequels.

Highest-grossing Tamil film of 2025

In two days, Coolie has grossed ₹250+ crore worldwide, including ₹118 crore net in India. This makes it the highest-grossing Tamil film of the year, surpassing Ajith Kumar's Good Bad Ugly, which ended its theatrical run with a final gross of ₹248 crore.

Coolie's opening day set several new records across territories.

Biggest opening day pre-sales for a Tamil film

Coolie was breaking box office records even before it released in theatres. The film managed to sell tickets worth ₹109 crore in pre-sales for its opening day, the highest for any Tamil film.

Fastest Tamil film to ₹100 crore

In the domestic market, Coolie crossed the ₹100 crore mark in just two days, becoming the first Tamil film to do so. Rajni's 2.0 and Vijay's Leo had both done it in three days.

Coolie is now galloping towards the ₹300-crore mark globally and the ₹200-crore mark domestically. That it will reach both quicker than even Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan is a testament to the film's craze across India. Coolie's global earning pace is outdone only by a few Indian films, namely Pushpa 2: The Rule, RRR, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, KGF Chapter 2, Kalki 2898 AD, and Jawan.

All about Coolie

Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie features Rajinikanth in the titular role, leading a large ensemble cast that also includes Nagarjuna, Shruti Haasan, Soubin Shahir, and Upendra, along with Aamir Khan in a cameo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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