Ajith in Siruthai Siva's Vivegam.PR Handout
Vivegam/Vivekam starring Ajith Kumar and Kajal Aggarwal has made a superb collection at the US box office from the premiere shows on Wednesday and beat the record of Vijay's Bairavaa.
Vivegam, which is dubbed in Telugu as Vivekam, was one of the highly anticipated Tamil films of 2017. The huge hype surrounding the film had generated a lot of demand for its overseas theatrical rights and several leading distribution houses were in the race to bag them. Finally, it was CineGalaxy Inc, which had the last laugh. This distribution house acquired it for a whopping price of Rs 18 crore.
CineGalaxy Inc made extensive arrangements for its release in the various international markets. Vivegam and its Telugu version Vivekam were released in 160 screens in North America alone. The movie also premiered in the same number of cinema halls in the US on Wednesday night.
After decent advance bookings, the Ajith Kumar and Kajal Aggarwal starrer received massive response everywhere in the country with some theatres witnessing 100 percent occupancy for the premiere show.
The distributors are yet to reveal the final figures. If we are to go by early estimates, Vivegam and Vivekam collected over $200,000 together at the US box office from the premiere shows. The final number is likely to touch $250,000. Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted: "#Vivegam premiere count on Wednesday crosses $200k in USA so far. Much higher than any of Ajith's past films in USA. ????????????"
Vivegam has beaten the records of all of Ajith's previous releases. The movie has also beaten the collection record of Vijay's Bairavaa when it comes to US premiere shows. It has gone on to become the Tamil movie with the biggest opening in 2017.
Here is the list of Kollywood movies that made huge collections at the US box office in the premiere shows this year.
Rank Movie Release Collection
1 Vivegam Aug 24 $200,000
2 Bairavaa Jan 12 $81,000
3 Kaatru Veliyidai Apr 7 $62,000
4 Si3 Feb 9 $42,000
5 VIP2 Aug 11 $21,000
6 Vikram Vedha Jul 21 $13,000