Varisu or Thunivu - Which movie won the Pongal race - detailed break up of all the regions and the verdicts

Lets start a detailed comparison of Both Varisu and Thunivu movies, including various factors like the previous movies box office, the reviews and the overall verdicts each region wise.

Tamilnadu

In Tamilnadu, the home ground of tamil cinema, the highest grossing movies as of Jan-2023 are Ponniyin selvan 1, Vikram, Viswasam, Master, KGF2, Baahubali 2  Like Superstar Rajinikanth, Vijay has a bigger box office compared to Ajith on the whole, but the specific numbers actually depend on the individual movies and their reception and the overall run that includes lot of factors. Apart from Ponniyin selvan 1 and Vikram which are non-Ajith, Vijay movies, the next number one grosser is Ajith's Viswasam. Viswasam even released on the same day with Superstar's Petta. Vijay's best Master did not beat Viswasam's Tamilnadu box office (BO) gross.

When Veeram and Jilla released on the same day in 2014, Veeram with very good reviews and Jilla with average reviews did almost same in box office. Along with every Vijay's movies, there comes big budget tag, frenzy star cast and a wider promotion like audio launch events etc. In fact from the last few years, the politics tag was also added by Vijay himself wantedly. Even before release of Varisu , Vijay met with his fans and associates from Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, on a grand event in the ECR Ajith's movie do not have those extra tags, political or contravorsies attached to it. Ajith's movies are purely run based on content and audience's reception. It would work out well or not, most of a binary result...

With Thunivu and Varisu - in the first 5 days holiday run Thunivu emerged as winner, same time, family audience also supported well for Varisu, compared to his previous movies like Beast, Master which did not attract family audiences well. Also with a slightly lesser price tag for Thunivu than Varisu, and the additional promo cost for Varisu are also taken into consideration here. There are trusted distributors vocally confirmed Thunivu entered into break even zone lot earlier than Varisu movie due to its budget and cost. Varisu would attain break even in coming days. So Thunivu and Varisu did almost same box office collection in Tamilnadu, with critics response Thunivu gets an edge and emerged as winner. Other reasons: Thunivu BO in Tamilnadu is higher than previous release Valimai, only second to Ajith's career best Viswasam, it could not break that record as far as it stands now. For Varisu, it did not break the BO of Vijay's previous movies Beast, but it will surely break collections of Beast in TN in coming days. But it will surely fall short of Master's TN BO , which is Vijay's number 1 BO movie in Tamilnadu.

Verdict: Tie

Kerala

In Kerala - Thalapathy Vijay is the biggest superstar, his below average movies also collected good numbers in the past, Its well known he is more popular and his movies do well, even better than Mamooty's and Mohanlal's. That is the craze for Vijay in Kerala and the reason is still unknown..

Verdict: Varisu

Karnataka

In Karnataka, Ajith movies does well over Vijay's , the trend is repeated and Thunivu emerged a winner over Varisu.

Verdict: Thunivu

Andhra and Telangana

In Andhra and Telangana, Vijay has very good opening next to Suriya's. Ajith do not have much box office numbers in Andhra regions, even his best movies are remade and just make minor box office.  This was same with this release as well. That too with Varisu being produced by Telugu producer and director, there was huge expectations for Varisu Telugu version named Vaarasudu, some even predicted a share of 50 crores, but we clearly predicted share of 15 crores, but it looks like it will end up with share of just over 11 crores. Master remains Vijay's best movie in Andhra regions till date. There was high expectations for Vaarasudu but it did not fulfill that.

Verdict: Varisu

U.S.A and Canada

For the first time, Ajith's movie has surpassed 1 million dollars USD in USA and Canada including. Thunivu has crossed around 1.1 Mollion USD in USA, while Varisu just crossed 1 Million mark. This is also first time, Ajith's movie overtakes Vijay's box office collection in USA. Usually Thalapathy Vijay's movies do around 1 million on average and easily and Ajith's movie only do half of it in US, due to low key overseas promotions.

Verdict: Thunivu

U.K. and European countries:

Vijay is number 1 when it comes to U.K box office and this territory is similar to Kerala for Vijay. Ajith's movie do not do much in U.K but Thunivu did make a splash and emerged best BO grossing movie for Ajith in U.K. When it comes to other European countries like France, Germany etc. Thunivu has gotten a good opening due to its wider release by Lyca productions which bought the overseas rights for Thunivu. Thunivu won in these countries, and as expected Varisu emerged winner in U.K alone.

Verdict: Thunivu, due to boost up of Ajith's market in Eurpoe big time

Middle east regions like Dubai, Abu Dhabi

In the middle eastern regions, the story was similar to US, where more Kerala population lives. Kerala region is stronghold of Thalapathy Vijay. So Vijay's movie do well in middle eastern regions, this time Thunivu and Varisu did almost same gross box office collections in middle eastern regions. In fact Thunivu did not get released in Saudi Arabia (cencor banned) and still managed to make almost same as Thalapathy Vijay's varisu

Verdict: Tie. Ajith's market expanded this time.

Malaysia and Singapore

In Malaysia and Singapore, which is strong hold of Ajith, repeated in this venture as well. Thunivu is clear winner over Varisu in Malaysia and Singapore regions.

Verdict: Thunivu

Australia, New Zealand

In Australia, New Zealand- where the story is similar to US, Ajith had his best lifetime collections with Thunivu surpassing previous best Valimai. Vijay's Varisu did the similar numbers like his previous movies in Australia and New Zealand

Verdict: Varisu

Final verdict: Both movies did well in the box office, may be due to the pride factor in play for both heroes fans.. Thunivu (Ajith) has flipped U.S and European regions markets which was previous strong holds by Varisu (Vijay) and all other regions remain the same...

Ajith's box office has grown with Thunivu movie and Vijay's box office slightly got reduced.

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