Superstar Rajinikanth is facing a clash at the box office for the first time in 13 years with another big film, Ajith’s Viswasam, releasing on the same day as Petta. Both the films are raring to cash in on the Pongal weekend, January 10. While the release of two big films may be good news for the audience, the two films may lose out on record numbers as the screens will get divided, resulting in lesser number of shows.
According to trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai, there are about 1200 screens in Tamil Nadu and both films can expect about 600-700 screens each. He tweeted, “In TN both will get around 650-700 screens with a maximum number of them being shared. There may not be individual records as b-o gets divided, but the combined numbers are going to be Huge!”
Theater owner Abirami Ramanathan, however, is positive that good content will be the winner. He told Firstpost, “I think Pongal can accommodate two big films and depending on the content, we will know the winner after a few days and from the second week, more shows will be allotted to that film. In the future too, you can expect clashes between two big films and nobody is going to get that big solo release.”
Producer G Dhananjayan weighed in how each star’s hold at the box office would affect the collections. “If Rajinikanth is the big Tamil global superstar with phenomenal reach, there is a huge craze for Ajith and Vijay in Tamil Nadu, where they are known as kings of opening.”
{{/usCountry}}Producer G Dhananjayan weighed in how each star’s hold at the box office would affect the collections. “If Rajinikanth is the big Tamil global superstar with phenomenal reach, there is a huge craze for Ajith and Vijay in Tamil Nadu, where they are known as kings of opening.”
{{/usCountry}}If we look at opening day numbers of the last films of the two stars in Chennai alone, Ajith’s previous film Vivegam had raked in Rs 1.21 crore on the first day while Rajinikanth’s 2.0 made a record at the box office with Rs 2.64 crore collection. Now each star’s film would eat into the other’s collection.
Initially, there were also problems with the first-day first show, a big tradition that fans across the state follow. It was on Tuesday that a Government Order (GO) was passed allowing a 5th show (special show) from January 10 to 20. It is, however, unclear at what time this additional show will take place.
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