By The first-day numbers of Indian 2 are the second highest ever for both Kamal Hassan, trailing behind Vikram (Rs. 34.50 crore) and director Shankar, behind 2.0 (Rs. 70 crore).
“Indian 2” struggled with an ordinary opening at the Indian box office, earning just over Rs. 31 crore on its first day. While this is the highest opening day for a Tamil film in 2023, the overall performance is disappointing given the high costs and franchise value. The film needed to earn over Rs. 40 crore and close to Rs. 50 crore on its first day to be considered successful, but it fell short.
For the cast, the first-day numbers are the second highest ever for Kamal Haasan, trailing behind “Vikram” (Rs. 34.50 crore) and for director Shankar, behind “2.0” (Rs. 70 crore). The earnings are only 10% higher than the 2015 release “I”, despite ticket prices having more than doubled since then.
The bigger issue for “Indian 2” is the poor audience reception. Films can often recover from a weak start if the audience reception is positive, but the negative feedback has likely sealed the fate of “Indian 2”.
Breaking down the film’s performance, it grossed approximately Rs. 13 crore in Tamil Nadu, compared to Rs. 22 crore for “Vikram”. Almost half of this amount came from Chennai and Coimbatore, where big-ticket films usually see 30-40% of their first-day revenue. This highlights the very poor performance outside the major centers in the state.
In the Telugu states, the film grossed Rs. 10.25 crore, which is relatively better compared to Tamil Nadu. However, Shankar’s previous film “I” opened to nearly Rs. 9 crore in 2015, which adjusted for inflation is Rs. 20 crore today. Elsewhere, Karnataka and Kerala showed poor performance, with Kerala earning less than Shankar’s nearly decade-old film “I”. The Hindi dubbed version was a washout, but there were no high expectations for it.
