Leo, the action thriller directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, is expected to set the box office on fire and establish Thalapathy Vijay as the premier star of Kollywood, overtaking the record set by Rajinikanth’s Jailer. On the first day of advance booking on October 14, the movie had collected Rs 34 crore.
Jailer collected Rs 650 crore in the box office, helping Rajinikanth stay on top of the box office pyramid despite the failure of his previous two outings, Darbar and Annaththe. According to industry trackers, Leo is expected to cross Rs 700 crore mark, given the huge excitement around the film worldwide. The film will be released in 3,000 screens across Tamil Nadu and over 15,000 screens world wide, on Thursday.
With the first weekend of the release of the movie being a long holiday in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India due to Vijayadashami, the Vijay-starrer is expected to emerge as the highest-grossing Tamil film in the recent past. Earlier, Rajinikanth’s 2.0 made Rs.118 crore on day one of its release while his own Kabali made Rs.106 crore on the first day. According to industry sources, given the number of screens and the hype among Vijay fans, Leo is expected to break several records in terms of the first-day collections.
On the first day of advance booking on October 14, tickets were sold in normal cinemas for Rs 29 crore and at IMAX cinemas for Rs 7 crore. The ticket sales in the past four days have crossed Rs 70 crore. While the director refused to confirm if the movie is part of the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU), according to industry sources, Kamal Haasan, who played the lead in Vikram has lent his voice for the film.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, after watching Leo, took to X, to praise team Leo and Kanagaraj, and suggested that the movie may be part of the LCU. This has upset Vijay fans as he had disclosed a closely guarded secret.
This is the director's second film with Vijay after Master. Apart from Vijay, the film also stars Trisha Krishnan, Gautham Menon, Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Sarja. Produced by Seven Screen Studio, the trailer showed Vijay playing a dual role as Leo and Parthiban.