Superstar Rajinikanth's Jailer has completed 50 days of its run in movie theaters, and the benchmark could very well be wake up call for trade pundits on why stardom cannot and should not be overlooked. It is no secret that before its theatrical release on August 10, 2023, the buzz surrounding Jailer was nowhere near a Rajinikanth release for a considerable amount of time.
And because of the same, Jailer's release and the impact it would bring was grossly underestimated for quite a stretch too. Rajinikanth's previous consecutive failures i.e. the underperformance of movies like of Darbar (2020) and Annathae (2021) might have played a big part in such box-office predictions. Even post the upsurge in the Jailer release buzz close to the film's release, there were no big expectations from the film seemingly.
Jailer's first single Kaavaalaa only bought forth critical thoughts on why the song was promoted using Tamannaah and not Rajinikanth. Post the song's release, Rajinikanth became troll fodder for "looking tired" and "not doing much" for the movie. However a tectonic shift came about in the buzz surrounding Jailer, when the film's second single Hukum - Thalaivar Alappara dropped.
Being a viral hit aside, Hukum brought back the 'Superstar' in (rightful) use, triggering endless discussions and debates. This was followed by a widely watched Jailer audio launch, with Rajinikanth's speech becoming a highlight for all the right and wrong reasons. The Jailer audio launch event was telecast a week after it actually took place, and real-time updates of Rajinikanth's speech was widely misinterpreted and spread, causing a massive online fan-war.
The events between Hukum and Jailer audio launch event telecast helped the buzz surrounding Jailer intact. Post Jailer's release too, audience found that the film was perfectly suited to thrill the Rajini fan in them. The movie was welcomed with open arms and embraced as a result. As opposed to trade predictions, Jailer also went on to become an industry hit.
Jailer business reaped 3-4 times the expected profit for those who dealt with the film. Production house Sun Pictures went on to gift expensive luxury cars to the movie's backbones - lead actor Rajinikanth, director Nelson Dilipkumar, and music director Anirudh. Everyone who worked on the film including all key cast and crew received gold coins from production. Several generous donations to charitable causes were also made directly by Sun Pictures, in the name of Jailer's box-office success.
Jailer's global box office collection (GBOC) stands at Rs. 650 Cr+ in gross. This GBOC is the second highest for a Kollywood movie after 2.0 [2018], which is also a Rajinikanth movie. If anything, the overall takeaway here is that if a normal commercial entertainer like Jailer can pull such record numbers at worldwide level, then the complete potential of Tamil Cinema remains unexplored as yet. With the right mix of subject, stardom, expectation meters and promotional pushes, sky is the limit for box-0ffice success.