Mersal box office: Vijay-starrer fails to break opening day records at Kochi multiplexes, Aries Plex

Ilayathalapathy Vijay's latest movie Mersal has registered an earth-shattering opening at the worldwide box office. The Atlee directorial also performed tremendously well across Kerala upon its grand release on October 18.

Check: Kerala box office: Vijay's Mersal gets terrific opening

However, the movie has failed to break the record of previous Tamil movies to emerge as the big grosser at the Kochi multiplexes and Aries Plex in Thiruvananthapuram.

Mersal at Kochi multiplexes

The Vijay-starrer is said to have earned a gross collection of Rs 9.94 lakh from 35 shows with an average theatre occupancy of 98 percent from five multiplexes in Kochi.

Though the occupancy was comparatively higher than the recent releases -- Bairavaa (74 percent) and Vivegam (67 percent) -- Mersal could not cross the opening day collection of these two films, which made a business of Rs 12.58 lakh and Rs 12.17 lakh, respectively. The difference proved to be the screen count. While the Bharathan directorial had 57 shows on the first day at the multiplexes, the Ajith-starrer had 50 shows there.

Read more: Will Mersal break Kabali, Theri opening day record at Kerala box office?

Among the movies of Vijay, it is Theri that registered the highest opening day business from multiplexes by earning Rs 12.87 lakh. However, the biggest Tamil release so far remains to be Rajinikanth's Kabali, which collected Rs 30.21 lakh on the first day with 99.97 percent occupancy.

Mersal at Aries Plex

Mersal also failed to become the highest opening day grosser at Aries Plex multiplex in Thiruvananthapuram. The action thriller, which has Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kajal Aggarwal and Nithya Menen in female lead roles, could collect only Rs 10.26 lakh from nine shows with an occupancy of 99.89 percent on the first day.

Also check: Mersal beats Baahubali 2 in Tamil Nadu

Vijay's Bairavaa is on the top spot at Aries Plex with a gross collection of approximately Rs 11 lakh from 23 shows, followed by SS Rajamouli's magnum-opus Baahubali: The Conclusion, which did a business of Rs 10.41 lakhs from 14 houseful shows on the opening day.