A year after his 'Vikram' made Kollywood box-office records tumble, Lokesh Kanagaraj is raking it in with Thalapathy Vijay's 'Leo' -- and the momentum of its opening numbers is most likely to hold.
The Tamil film, which was released on Thursday riding on very high expectations, grossed Rs 140.2 crore worldwide on its opening day and may come very close to Rs 200 crore when the figures for Friday are out in the early hours of Saturday. It has made substantially more than what the previous Tamil hit, Rajinikanth's 'Jailer', did on its Day One: Rs 91.2 crore.
It has even surpassed the Rs 129.6 crore notched up by 'Jawan' on its first day and the Rs 104.8 crore earned by 'Pathaan' -- these are this year's top two big grossers -- and left the 'Gadar' first-day worldwide collection of Rs 53.7 crore far behind.
Authoritative trade media website Sacnilk.com, meanwhile, has indicated that the second day of 'Leo' promises to be a good one with its gross earnings likely to touch Rs 35 crore in the domestic market, buoyed by the 66.85 per cent average occupancy reported by cinemas in Tamil Nadu in the morning and afternoon shows on Friday. And with Chennai reporting an average of 88 per cent, 'Leo' appears to be on a strong wicket.
With 'Leo' off to a good start, Lokesh Kanagaraj's LCU -- Lokesh Cinematic Universe -- is on a roll, following the successive successes of the Karthi-starrer 'Kaithi' (2019: Rs 106.8 crore), Kamal Haasan-led 'Vikram' (2022; Rs 414.43 crore), and now 'Leo', if the early trends hold good as the days progress.