It’s been 18 days since the two pan-India blockbusters released on the eve of Independence Day — Lokesh Kanagaraj’s crime thriller Coolie, starring Rajinikanth, and Ayan Mukerji’s spy thriller War 2, starring Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR. Since the opening day, Coolie has mostly enjoyed an edge over War 2 in terms of the domestic box office earnings.
On its 18th day, that is the third Sunday since release, Coolie added another Rs 3 crore to the proceedings, which was a minor improvement on its Saturday (day 17) collection of Rs 2.80 crore, a further spike from its Friday (day 16) earnings of Rs 1.70 crore. As per Sacnilk, the current box office collection of Coolie in India stands at Rs 280 crore.
While that is far higher than the lifetime domestic box office earnings of Rajinikanth’s release last year — Vettaiyan (Rs 148 crore), it’s still miles behind that of Jailer, his 2023 action comedy helmed by Nelson Dilipkumar, which collected Rs 349 crore. Similarly, Coolie’s domestic box office earnings are much lower than that of Kanagaraj’s previous releases — Thalapathy Vijay’s 2023 starrer Leo (Rs 399 crore) and Kamal Haasan’s 2022 starrer Vikram (Rs 289 crore).
The Tamil version of Coolie is still dominating the share, followed by the dubbed Telugu, Hindi, and Kannada versions respectively. In comparison, War 2 has now collected Rs 235 crore across all three languages (Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu) in India. In the Hindi market, Coolie is now also competing with Tushar Jalota’s romantic comedy Param Sundari, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor, which earned Rs 26.75 crore over its opening weekend.
Coolie has also been impacted by its ‘A’ (Adults Only) certification in India. Days after the release, the makers moved Madras High Court objecting to the certification, which is depriving several young fans of Rajinikanth to watch the movie, particularly on the occasion of the Tamil superstar completing 50 years since his debut in the film industry.
However, the appeal was rejected since the CBFC’s legal representative argued that the makers of Coolie accepted all the cuts suggested by the board to get cleared for a theatrical release. Since they’ve approached the court only days after the release, it was not even an urgent matter and can be heard on a later date.
This delay in the hearing further thwarted the chances of Coolie getting a ‘U/A’ certificate, instead of the ‘A’ certificate, which is also curtailing its box office numbers across India. Given his family-friendly image, most of Rajinikanth’s films have been released with ‘U/A’ certification, with Coolie being an exception because of certain violent action sequences. However, last week, the Madras HC rejected the makers’ appeal against the ‘A’ certification given to Coolie.
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Also Read — Rajinikanth’s Coolie, Vijay’s Leo: The second half problem with the cinema of Lokesh Kanagaraj
Coolie, helmed by Kanagaraj, isn’t a part of his Lokesh Cinematic Universe or the Lokiverse, but it’s as highly mounted and star-studded. Also starring Shruti Haasan as the leading lady and Telugu superstar Nagarjuna as the chief antagonist, Coolie even boasts of a special cameo by Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.
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