This Pongal, there was an epic box office battle between Thalapathy Vijay's Varisu and Thunivu, starring Ajith. Both movies had a strong opening weekend, with receipts increasing on day five after their release. Thalapathy Vijay has triumphed in the Pongal box office war, at least for the first extended weekend. Ajith Kumar appeared to be the clear winner at first, but Thunivu was well behind Varisu at the box office, which quickly gained momentum.
Varisu, which debuted in Telugu states and the Hindi belt a few days after it was released in Tamil, had a strong Sunday. Reports state that the movie's first Sunday take at around Rs 18.50 crore, bringing its overall net take to Rs 85.25 crore. According to the reports, Vijay's movie scored a 74.52% Tamil occupancy overall on Sunday.
Contrarily, Thunivu earned Rs 11.50 crore on day five, bringing its overall net earnings to Rs 67 cr. On Sunday, the action heist movie's Tamil audience was 74.26% overall.
Vijay's biggest release of the year was Varisu; his last role was in Beast from 2022, which also made a lot of money but didn't garner much critical acclaim. Contrarily, Varisu received positive reviews after its release.