Thalapathy Vijay's Leo will not earn Rs 1000 crore at box office, says producer Lalit Kumar

With such a massive opening and a packed weekend, could Leo become Tamil cinema's first movie to earn Rs 1000 crore in ticket sales?

Still from Leo

Thalapathy Vijay's latest movie Leo took a massive opening across the world, emerging as 2023's biggest opener in terms of box office collections. The movie raked in more than Rs 140 crore in its global box office receipts, overtaking the first-day collection of other big releases this year, including Pathaan, Jawan and Adipurush.

Before Leo, no other Tamil movies managed to breach the Rs 100 crore threshold at the box office on its opening day. With such a massive opening and a packed weekend, could Leo become Tamil cinema's first movie to earn Rs 1000 crore in ticket sales? It's a reasonable question. For example, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan earned Rs 126 crore on its opening day but managed to gross over Rs 1000 crore at the worldwide box office. Then, why can't Leo do it?

Here's why Leo can't earn Rs 1000 crore at box office

Producer Lalit Kumar of Seven Screen Studio nurtures no such hopes for Leo. In a recent interview, he clarified that the market was not conducive for Leo to achieve such path-breaking collections. "Leo had a huge opening in all South Indian states and overseas. But, Jawan didn't open big in the southern states. This is the reason why Leo's opening day collection was bigger than Jawan's," explained Lalit.

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He also noted that the potential of Leo touching the Rs 1000 crore mark has been undercut by its limited release in the Hindi-speaking belt. "Leo won't collect Rs 1000 crore due to the very limited release in North Indian states. Only after we signed the terms with Netflix, the multiplexes chains in the north come up with a new order (mandatory eight-week exclusive release in cinemas)," said Lalit.

ALSO READ: No Leo Hindi release in multiplexes? No problem, says North Indian film exhibitor

The national multiplex chains boycotted the Hindi version of Leo owing to its shorter theatrical window. The producer, however, managed to release the movie in about 2000 single-screen theatres in the North Indian states. It exceeded the expectations by raking in over Rs 4 crore on its opening day.

Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, Leo also stars Trisha, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun and Gautham Menon.

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