Box office collection: 'Pichaikkaran' performs better than 'Pokkiri Raja' in opening weekend

Vijay Anthony's "Pichaikkaran" has emerged winner at the box office in its first weekend. Interestingly, it has beaten Jeeva's "Pokkiri Raja" by a good margin in the first three days at collection centres.

"Pichaikkaran" has collected Rs 4.25 crore in the opening weekend, trade tracker Kaushik LM said on Twitter. According to him, the Tamil movie is a clear winner as it has the major advantage of getting 30 percent entertainment tax exemption from the state government.

Talking about the collection of "Pokkiri Raja," he posts, "#PokkiriRaja opening weekend TN gross of around 3 crores .. @Actorjiiva @ihansika @ramprakashdir @Sibi_Sathyaraj."

It seems like the good word-of-mouth by the audience for "Pichaikkaran" has reflected at the collection centres. As a result, the Tamil movie is getting more number of screens from Monday, March 7.

"#Pichaikkaran has become #Panakkaran, doing well across TN purely on WOM. From today most of screens playing 4 shows, due 2 occupancy factor," leading trade tracker Sreedhar Pillai tweets.

The trade experts predict "Pichaikkaran" to hold well in the weekdays. The Tamil movie is showing the signs of becoming the biggest hit of Vijay Anthony's career.

"Pichaikkaran" tells the story of a rich man turning poor due to circumstances. The surprising part of the story is that the film is doing better collection than a star's film like "Pokkiri Raja," which has Jiiva and Hansika Motwani in the lead roles.

"Pokkiri Raja" and "Pichaikkaran" were released in over 275 and 225 screens, respectively. However,  the overseas numbers are yet to be out.

On the other hand, Atharvaa-starrer "Kanithan" has also done well this weekend, while "Miruthan" and "Sethupathi" have made decent collections.