Nelson Dilipkumar’s action thriller Jailer 2, starring Rajinikanth, has generated massive buzz ahead of its worldwide release on October 15, collecting over Rs 22 crore at the global box office through advance booking that has not even opened completely in India.

Four days before release, the Rajinikanth-starrer has collected Rs 22.32 crore at the worldwide box office. The majority of the advance earnings belong to the overseas market, at over Rs 17 crore, while the film has garnered Rs 5.32 crore on its home turf so far. This includes Rs 3.84 crore on the opening day alone, with Chennai taking the lead at Rs 2.50 crore.

Strong domestic and overseas numbers

The Rs 5.32 crore domestic total comes from over 2.9 lakh tickets sold across 2674 screens. Tamil Nadu is the biggest contributor at Rs 5.05 crore, followed by Rs 25.96 lakh in Karnataka. The native Tamil version has collected Rs 5.49 crore, whereas the dubbed Hindi version has contributed only Rs 77,000 by selling 384 tickets from 18 shows so far, as per Sacnilk.

Internationally, Jailer 2 has already crossed the $1 million mark through pre-sales. Most of these earnings come from Rajinikanth’s stronghold of North America, particularly the United States, followed by the UAE, the UK, Australia and Europe. The first part, Jailer, was also a massive overseas blockbuster, earning over Rs 47 crore on its opening day alone.

Sequel to a blockbuster

Jailer became one of Rajinikanth’s biggest global hits, amassing over Rs 606 crore at the worldwide box office, including Rs 409 crore in India and over Rs 196 crore overseas. Given the current pre-sales, Jailer 2 could head in the same direction, though its next target is another Rajinikanth-starrer, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie, which registered an overseas opening of $8.75 million last year.

Though Jailer 2 will enjoy a one-day head start at the domestic box office, it will face fresh competition from Friday, October 16 releases: Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s Telugu period action film Ranabaali, Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi’s Bollywood courtroom drama Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam, and Yami Gautam’s horror comedy Nayyi Naveli.

Produced by Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Pictures, Jailer 2 also stars SJ Suryah, Mithun Chakraborty, Ramya Krishnan, Vidya Balan, Yogi Babu and Jatin Sarna, with cameos by Mohanlal, Vijay Sethupathi, Hrithik Roshan and Jackie Shroff.