Mani Ratnam has reunited with Kamal Haasan 38 years after their 1987 cult classic crime thriller Nayakan. But their new crime thriller, Thug Life, doesn’t look like one that’s going into the books like its predecessor. Having gotten mixed reviews, Thug Life has also not been able to perform well at the domestic box office.
After 11 days at the box office, Thug Life hasn’t managed to cross even the Rs 50 crore mark. In fact, on day 11, its second Sunday, the film slipped down to its lowest single-day figure yet, at Rs 69 lakh. This is a drop from its Saturday earnings of Rs 93 lakh and even less than its Friday collection of Rs 75 lakh.
As per Sacnilk, prior to its second weekend, Thug Life at least hovered above the Rs 1 crore mark throughout the week. After opening to a decent figure of Rs 15.5 crore on June 5, it dropped down to single digits the very next day and hasn’t recovered since. It earned almost half on Friday (Rs 7.15 crore). Just like last weekend, Thug Life registered a minor spike this Saturday too, before dipping again on Sunday.
The current box office collection of Thug Life in India stands at Rs 46.37 crore across all languages. The lion’s share belongs to the native Tamil version, followed by the dubbed Telugu and Hindi versions respectively. After having enjoyed a theatrical run sans major competition for a couple of weeks, Thug Life will face a fresh competitor in fellow pan-India release Kuberaa.
Sekhar Kammula’s crime drama, starring Nagarjuna, Dhanush, and Rashmika Mandanna, is sated to release in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi across cinemas this Friday on June 20. In the Hindi market, Thug Life will also face fresh competition from RS Prasanna’s coming-of-age sports comedy Sitaare Zameen Par, starring Aamir Khan, starting this Friday.
Thug Life is already encountering fresh competition from Tarun Mansukhani’s ensemble whodunit comedy Housefull 5, headlined by Akshay Kumar, which has earned over Rs 100 crore more than Thug Life so far, despite having released a day after the Kamal Haasan-starrer. Thug Life pales even in comparison to the recent individual Haasan and Ratnam movies.
For instance, Haasan’s last two films, S Shankar’s 2024 vigilante drama Indian 2 and Lokesh Kanagaraj’s 2022 action thriller Vikram, had crossed the Rs 50 crore mark within just the first two days at the domestic box office. The same goes for the two instalments of Ratnam’s historical epic Ponniyin Selvan, which released in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
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Co-produced by Haasan’s production house Raaj Kamal Films International and Ratnam’s Madras Talkies, Thug Life also stars Simbu, Trisha, Nasser, Ali Fazal, and Rohit Saraf among others. Its box office earnings have also been impacted by the film not releasing in Karnataka over a controversial remark by Haasan.
