Rajinikanth surprises fans by watching Jailer 2 in a Chennai theatre

Superstar Rajinikanth watched Jailer 2 at a newly renovated theatre inside Phoenix Mall in Chennai on Friday, marking the first time in 40 years he has publicly watched one of his films in a cinema hall since release. Music composer Anirudh Ravichander and Dhanush's son joined the actor for the late-night screening among a packed audience.

Box Office Numbers

The film released on October 15 and has crossed Rs 628 crore worldwide in eight days, establishing itself as the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2026. Pre-release ticket sales reached Rs 57.30 crore from 29.69 lakh tickets across 31,812 screens in India. The opening day brought in Rs 59.70 crore net in India across 16,599 shows, with a worldwide gross of Rs 125.25 crore. This surpassed the original Jailer opening-day collection of Rs 48.35 crore. Advance bookings alone hit Rs 30.90 crore, making it the second-highest advance for a Rajinikanth film behind Coolie and ahead of Annaatthe.

Cast and Crew

Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar and produced by Kalanithi Maran through Sun Pictures, the action film features Rajinikanth returning as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian. The star-studded cast includes SJ Suryah, Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ramya Krishnan, and Suraj Venjaramoodu, alongside special appearances by Mohanlal, Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Shroff, and Vijay Sethupathi.

Context

Public theatre visits by top-tier Indian film stars are rare due to massive crowd control challenges and security concerns. Major commercial blockbusters in South Indian cinema frequently rely on massive pre-release advance bookings and holiday windows like Dussehra to drive early box office milestones.