Director Nelson's film Jailer 2, headlined by Superstar Rajinikanth, has taken the box office by storm with a phenomenal collection in its first five days. Industry trackers Sacnilk reports that the film earned around 42 crore from theatres in India on Monday. This takes the overall Jailer 2 box office collection to about 477 crore worldwide. It has earned an approximate gross collection of 288 crore from theatres in India alone.
On Thursday, it marked Rajinikanth's second-biggest opening day collection to date, raking in massive 125.25 crore globally. It sits just behind last year's blockbuster Coolie, the Rajinikanth starrer that minted an estimated 150 crore on its release day. With the consistent performance at the box office, it is on course to become the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time, which is reportedly Rajinikanth's own 2.0 as of now with a collection of about 670 crore.
Upon its release, the sequel to Jailer has drawn a mix of positive and negative reactions. While critics and viewers pointed out some narrative dips and pacing issues in the second half, the first half has won widespread praise, with many of them calling it superior to the original film.
According to viewers, the response to the first half highlights director Nelson's seamless inclusion of fresh faces, notably Namo Narayana as Moorthy. Namo Narayana joins a sprawling new ensemble cast that includes Suraj Venjaramoodu, Vidya Balan, Hrithik Roshan, SJ Suryah, Vijay Sethupathi, Jackie Shroff, Apeksha Porwal, Mithun Chakraborty, and Hakkim Shah. Meanwhile, fan-favourite returning cast members such as Ramya Krishnan, Mirnaa, Yogi Babu, Vinayakan, Shivarajkumar, Jaffer Sadiq, and Mohanlal reprise their roles.
The story resumes from 2023's Jailer with Rajinikanth returning as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, the retired jailer who is now leading a quiet life running a supermarket near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. This existence of his is shattered by the sudden return of an erstwhile adversary, forcing him to go back to his lethal old ways to safeguard his family and defend his hard-earned legacy.
Backed by producer Kalanithi Maran under the Sun Pictures banner, Jailer 2 reunites the core technical team of the original, including music director Anirudh, cinematographer Vijay Kartik Kannan, and editor R Nirmal.