Thug Life box office Day 3: Kamal Haasan’s film hits ₹30 crore mark, but continues to underperform

Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam’s much-hyped Thug Life crossed the ₹30 crore mark at the domestic box office by the end of its first Saturday. However, the film’s sluggish momentum suggests it is still struggling to live up to expectations, especially considering the scale of its launch and the pedigree of its cast and crew.

According to early estimates from industry tracker Sacnilk.com, Thug Life earned ₹7.5 crore on Day 3, showing a negligible bump from its underwhelming Friday total of ₹7.15 crore. The film’s overall India net now stands at ₹30.15 crore across three days — a number that trails far behind Kamal Haasan’s recent blockbusters like Vikram (₹60 crore in two days) and even the critically panned Indian 2 (₹44 crore in two days).

The film began its run on Thursday with ₹15.5 crore, but the numbers steadily declined, particularly in the Hindi and Telugu markets. While Thug Life opened with ₹0.65 crore in Hindi and ₹1.5 crore in Telugu, it dropped to just ₹0.3 crore and ₹0.5 crore, respectively, on Day 2. Tamil Nadu, expected to be the film’s strongest territory, too showed signs of fatigue. The film recorded a Tamil occupancy of just 31.41 per percent on Friday, and the lack of strong word-of-mouth isn’t helping its prospects.

The film’s Hindi performance, in particular, has been dismal. On Day 2, it recorded a meagre occupancy rate of 6.48 per cent, and early estimates suggest the trend has continued into Saturday as well. The timing of Thug Life’s release also worked against it, with Housefull 5, a well-established Bollywood franchise, eating into its market share. The Akshay Kumar starrer earned ₹23 crore on its opening day alone, matching what Thug Life took three days to earn.

Thug Life, starring Kamal Haasan alongside Trisha, Silambarasan, Joju George, Ashok Selvan, and others, was positioned as a pan-India gangster epic. With music by AR Rahman and direction by Mani Ratnam, expectations were sky-high. But controversies, including backlash over Kamal’s remarks on the Kannada language that stalled the film’s release in Karnataka, combined with underwhelming reviews and mixed audience responses, have led to a rocky box office journey.

With Sunday being the last shot at a weekend turnaround, all eyes are on whether Thug Life can pick up momentum and avoid an early burnout.