In a staggering box office coup, Rajinikanth’s ‘Jailer’ has raced to the zenith, clinching the title of the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2023. Eclipsing earlier champions with a whopping Rs 450 crore in a mere week, this cinematic titan proves once again why Rajinikanth is the unchallenged king of Tamil cinema.

‘Jailer’ set the screens ablaze from Day 1. Despite a prior dampener from director Nelson Dilipkumar in ‘Vijay’s Beast’, the silver screen behemoth cruised past ‘Beast’s record of Rs 35 crore, raking in an impressive Rs 43 crore on opening day – without even the leverage of early morning screenings, courtesy of a new Tamil Nadu rule.

If the initial buzz wasn’t enough, ‘Jailer’ pulled off a cinematic marvel, achieving what no Tamil film has ever done. By Day 7, it amassed a staggering Rs 159 crore, zipping past ‘Ponniyin Selvan’s record of Rs 131 crore for the same period. Such feats place it in an unassailable lead for 2023, leaving even heavyweights like Kamal Haasan’s ‘Vikram’ in its wake.

The cinema landscape in 2023 saw giants clashing. Vijay and Ajith’s January releases, ‘Thunivu’ and ‘Varisu’, battled fiercely. ‘Varisu’ emerged victorious with a collection of Rs 297.55 crore globally, whereas ‘Thunivu’ settled for Rs 200 crore. Yet, it was Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’ that truly astounded by grossing Rs 345 crore. But ‘Jailer’? It rewrote history.

Trade pundit Ramesh Bala paints a rosy picture for ‘Jailer’ beyond Tamil Nadu. “It’s primed to reign in Kerala, is climbing charts in Karnataka, and in overseas markets like the US, UK, UAE, Australia, and New Zealand, it’s challenging the mightiest, positioned just shy of legends like ‘Ponniyin Selvan 1’,” he elucidates.

As speculations abound, the big question is: Will ‘Jailer’s reign be dethroned by Vijay’s impending ‘Leo’? For now, with a projected lifetime haul of approximately Rs 600 crore, Bala asserts that ‘Jailer’ is set not just to rule 2023, but also etch its name as the second highest-grossing Tamil film ever, second only to the epic ‘2.0’.

  Jailer, Kollywood, Nelson Dilipkumar, Rajinikanth, Tamil Nadu