Despite the widespread criticism for the film, Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie, starring Rajinikanth, has grossed over 500 crore from theatres worldwide. Interestingly, according to industry tracker Sacnilk's data, it tops the list of the highest-grossing Tamil films of 2025. The tracker calls it a commercially successful film. The other day, the film's director said that he accepts the criticism against it and would try to rectify the mistakes he committed in the film in his next work. At the same time, Lokesh also thanked the audience for making it a successful film at the box office.
Second on Sacnilk's of highest-grossing Tamil films of 2025 list is Good Bad Ugly, starring Ajith Kumar and directed by Adhik Ravichandran. According to the tracker, Good Bad Ugly has grossed 248.25 crore at the global box office. Interestingly, despite grossing around 100 crore less than the Ajith starrer (it earneda little over 150 crore from cinemas around the world), director Ashwath Marimuthu and actor Pradeep Ranganathan's Dragon is a blockbuster, according to Sacnilk. Interestingly, the tracker describes Ajith's other film released in 2025, Vidaamuyarchi, directed by Magizh Thirumeni, as a 'flop'.
The other films in the list are Keerthiswaran's Dude, starring Pradeep and Mamitha Baiju, Sivakarthikeyan-AR Murugadoss' Madharaasi, Mani Ratnam-Kamal Haasan's Thug Life, Dhanush's Idli Kadai, Suriya-Karthik Subbaraj's Retro, and Abishan Jeevinth's Tourist Family, starring M Sasikumar and Simran. Interestingly, despite the mixed reviews, Retro is considered a commercially successful film, whereas Madharaasi is regarded as a flop, in spite of the generally positive reviews the film has earned from critics.
Understandably, Thug Life is regarded as a 'flop', whereas Tourist Family is called a 'blockbuster'. The Sasikumar starrer is also regarded as one of the most profitable films of 2025 across languages.
