Thug Life Box Office Collection Day 1: Karnataka Ban Hurts Kamal Haasan Starrer As Its Opening Fails To Beat Suriya's Retro

Thug Life Box Office Collection Day 1: Kamal Haasan and director Mani Ratnam have reunited over 35 years after their cult classic Nayakan. Thug Life had huge anticipation riding on it, but controversy surrounded the movie's release as Haasan riled up his fans in Karnataka after he commented, "Kannada is born out of Tamil". The actor has still not apologised for his remarks, even as the movie stands banned in the state. Meanwhile, the response to it has also been mixed.

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While Haasan's role as a crime lord has been praised, along with Ratnam's direction and the film's cinematography, the storyline has seemingly failed to strike a chord. This has affected its biz on the opening day.

How much did Thug Life collect on day 1?

According to early estimates from Sacnilk, Thug Life minted ₹17 crore in all languages on day 1 of its release. Of this, ₹6.6 crore was through pre-sales. It seems like due to poor reviews, Kamal Haasan's film has not been able to interest spot buyers. What needs to be considered is that, given the release day was Thursday, the numbers were still good.

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It will be interesting to see if the film manages to pick up pace over the weekend.

Thug Life is Kollywood's 4th highest day 1 grosser in 2025

Thug Life is currently the 4th biggest Kollywood opener of 2025 so far. The top three spots are occupied by Ajith Kumar's Good Bad Ugly (₹28.15 crore), Vidaamuyarchi (₹25.5 crore) and Suriya's Retro (₹17.25 crore). If the final day 1 number rises for Thug Life, it may end up surpassing Retro by a small margin. After its theatrical run, the movie will stream on Netflix.