Mersal pre-release business: Vijay's film zooms past Rs 150-crore mark; a feat next only to Rajinikanth films

If pre-release business is taken as a parameter of one's market, Vijay is next only to superstar Rajinikanth. His reach is constantly expanding and with his latest movie Mersal, Ilayathalapathy has breached Rs 150-crore mark.

Mersal is estimated to have made a pre-release business of Rs 156 crore, as per Andhra Box Office, a leading trade tracker of South Indian movies. The theatrical rights of Tamil Nadu and overseas have fetched record amounts for Sri Thenandal Films. The Vijay-starrer has exceed all the expectations as the trade experts reckon the latest movie of Vijay to have seen a growth of at least 35 percent in terms of pre-release business compared to his recent movies.

As per the trade reports, Vijay's previous movies like Theri and Puli had fetched Rs 109 crore and Rs 102 crore for its producers from the sale of theatrical and other rights along with various deals.

Rajinikanth is in the numero uno position in Kollywood with his Kabali and now 2.0 making over Rs 200 crore before release. Ajith is in the third position after his recent film Vivegam collected Rs 119 from pre-release business.

"Vijay's previous movie Bairavaa had failed to set the box office on fire. A few distributors had reportedly suffered losses. Yet it did not stop them from quoting high price this time," a trade expert tells International Business Times.

"Two factors have driven the distributors to quote high prices. Firstly, the success of Atlee-Vijay's previous film Theri and the second and major is the Vijay-starrer is releasing on Diwali without any competition," he adds.

Theatres in Tamil Nadu during Diwali festival often witnesses huge footfalls. Generally, there will be two big films releasing during the festive time. However, Vijay's film is the only big release this year although there are few other films like Sarath Kumar's Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 hitting the screens.

Here is the area-wise break-up of collections:

Note: The box office numbers provided above are based on different reports and it may not be 100 percent accurate.