Opening Weekend Box Office: Both Vijay's ‘Varisu’ And Ajith Kumar's ‘Thunivu’ Enter Rs 100 Crore Club

Vijay's 'Varisu' and Ajith Kumar starrer 'Thunivu' released on the same day around Pongal last week, and it was certainly one of the biggest box-office clashes of the Tamil film industry. For those caught unaware, Ajith Kumar and Vijay’s films released on the same day after a gap of nine years.

Adding to the excitement, both the films witnessed a neck-to-neck competition at the domestic box office over the opening weekend. However, on the global box office front, Vijay's ‘Varisu’ saw a clear edge over Ajith's ‘Thunivu’. While ‘Thunivu’ took the lead at the Tamil Nadu box-office on the first day, it saw loss at the hands of Vijay's ‘Varisu’ on the second day. Despite the clash, both the films have joined the Rs 100 crore club at the Indian box-office in its opening weekend, as confirmed by trade sources.

Trade analyst Ramesh Bala took to Twitter on Monday to reveal that both the films are performing well within India, and have collected over Rs 100 crore at the Indian box-office. However, at the global box office, ‘Varisu’ has a slight edge over ‘Thunivu’ with Vijay starrer clearly outperforming Ajith's film in international markets like US, UK and some other places. In the US, ‘Varisu’ has already raked in over $1 million while ‘Thunivu’ collected $900k. 

Both ‘Varisu’ and ‘Thunivu’ released in equal numbers of screens in Tamil Nadu on the occasion of Pongal, and both the films were looked forward to by fans, who stayed up all night and celebrated their release.

‘Thunivu’, a heist thriller, marked the third collaboration between Ajith, director H. Vinoth and producer Boney Kapoor. It also featured Manju Warrier in a key role, and revolves around financial scams and how it affects the general public. 

‘Varisu’, on the other hand, is a family drama about the youngest son taking over his father's business empire. He deals with stiff opposition from his two elder brothers. Directed by Vamshi Paidipally, the film marked Vijay's debut in Telugu and also starred Rashmika Mandanna, Sarath Kumar, Shaam, Srikanth and Jayasudha in key roles.