Vijay's Bigil, which hit the screens on Friday, 25 October, is off to a great start at the box office in Tamil Nadu. After releasing to a huge hype, the AGS Entertainment-funded movie has got stupendous opening as it shatters the first-day records of Ajith Kumar's Viswasam and Rajinikanth's Petta in the state.
According to trade trackers, Bigil has minted over Rs 25.6 crore on the first day at the Tamil Nadu box office and made a business of Rs 1.80 crore in Chennai. It means the Atlee Kumar-directorial has become the biggest opener of 2019, beating the records of Ajith Kumar's Viswasam (Rs 14 crore) and Rajinikanth's Petta (Rs 13+ crore).
However, Bigil has failed to shatter the first-day record of Vijay's previous best of Rs 31.5 crore, set by Sarkar in Tamil Nadu, but it has beaten the record of Mersal, which had collected Rs 24.8 crore in Diwali 2017.
Here are the top five grosser at TN Box Office before Bigil
Sarkar: Rs 31.5 crore
Mersal: Rs 24.8 crore
Kabali: Rs 21.5 crore
2.0: Rs 18 crore
Vedalam: Rs 15.5 crore
The tickets for Bigil had sold like hotcakes before release and many theatres registered record pre-release sales. Sharing his excitement about the massive demand for tickets, Rakesh Gowthaman, managing director of Vettri Theatres, wrote, "Even today, we do need the traditional method to send a message #Bigil is #Thalapathy 's career best Adv bookings in #Vettri . We r sold out till Monday & the total ticket sales is 22.3k even before release. Kudos to @Atlee_dir & @archanakalpathi for creating this buzz . [sic]"
Rohini Silver Screens too sold huge number of tickets in advance. "At over 30000 tickets in advance sales #Bigil is now comfortably the highest per-booked movie @RohiniSilverScr !! Also it has already become the fourth highest grossing movie of the year @RohiniSilverScr behind Pongal releases and #NerKondaPaarvai MASSIVE OPENING!!. [sic]"
Atlee Kumar's Bigil is made with the budget of Rs 180 crore. The distributors have shelled out big money on the theatrical rights. The film has to perform well for the next few days to recover its investment.
