New Delhi: Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 has overtaken Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s Jana Nayagan to become the biggest Tamil opener of the year both domestically and internationally.
Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, the film was released on 15 October and opened with nearly Rs 60 crore, collecting Rs 125 crore worldwide. In comparison, Vijay’s Jana Nayagan, released in July, collected Rs 80 crore in its opening weekend.
The film has not only surpassed Vijay’s box office record but also outperformed its predecessor, Jailer (2023), which opened with Rs 48 crore. It has become the 75-year-old actor’s third-biggest opener, behind Coolie (2025), which opened with Rs 65 crore, and 2.0 (2018), which collected Rs 60 crore on its opening day.
Jana Nayagan is a political drama directed by H Vinoth, and starred Bobby Deol, Pooja Hegde and Mamitha Baiju, with the TVK leader in the lead role. The film follows a former Tamil Nadu Police inspector who raises the daughter of a deceased friend and helps her overcome childhood trauma. The film collected nearly Rs 350 crore worldwide.
Whereas, Jailer 2 stars Rajinikanth alongside Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Mohanlal and S J Suryah. It also features a surprise cameo by Hrithik Roshan, who plays Roddy, a character with a 20-year history with Rajinikanth’s Tiger Muthuvel. In the film, Tiger once helped Roddy, who later returns to assist him in his fight against his enemies.
With its strong opening, Jailer 2 has also become the fourth-biggest opener of the year across films, behind Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which opened with Rs 102 crore, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups, which collected Rs 101 crore, and Drishyam: The Conclusion, which opened with Rs 62 crore.
However, the film faced a restricted release in North India, missing out on multiplex chains such as PVR INOX and Cinepolis. While Tamil films typically follow a four-week theatrical window before their OTT debut, PVR INOX and Cinepolis follow an eight-week window as the norm. Since Jailer 2 did not meet this requirement, it was reportedly limited to single-screen theatres in the region, missing out on a multiplex release altogether.