Vijay’s Mersal hit screens on October 18. Vijay’s Mersal hit screens on October 18.

As expected Ilayathalapathy Vijay’s new release Mersal, which hit screens on Deepavali, has set the box office on fire. The film, which is directed by Atlee, has created a few box office records, beating the collection made by films like of Rajinikanth’s Kabali in Chennai for opening day. Not just in domestic markets, Mersal is also strong in the United States, overtaking the day one collection records of Bollywood biggies like Aamir Khan’s Dangal and Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees.

On the day it released, the Vijay-starrer has reportedly raked in more than Rs 31 crore from its ticket sales across the county. According to entertainment journalist Sreedhar Pillai, the film collected approximately 22.5 crore in Tamil Nadu alone on Wednesday.

Vijay enjoys a great fan following in Kerala, where the film said to have taken the biggest opening for a Tamil film. Some reports peg the opening day box office collection there at over Rs 4 crore.

Mersal collected Rs 2.25 crore in the US, where it released on Tuesday and continued to perform well on Wednesday. Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh has pegged the total two-day collection at Rs Rs 3.11 crore.

The film is also bullish in other international markets such as Malaysia, Austraila, the UK and others. Taran Adarsh said Malaysia had a ‘mania’ for Mersal, where the film debuted by collecting MYR 586,665 (Rs 90.31 lakhs). “Tamil film #Mersal – Wed previews… AUS: A$ 133,057 [₹ 68.01 lakhs] – 25 locations UK: £ 94,311 [₹ 81.08 lakhs] – 37 locations,” tweeted Taran.

According to industry tracker Ramesh Bala, Mersal earned Rs 31.50 crore in India, while its worldwide collection stands at Rs 43.50 crore.

Mersal will continue to keep the cash registers ringing at the box office due to the strong advance booking. The film is expected to break even for its distributors by the end of the weekend at this rate.

Mersal is the expensive film in the career of Vijay as it has reportedly cost about Rs 130 crore for its makers, Sri Thenandal Films. The film said to have earned more than Rs 150 crore through theatrical rights even before its release.

Mersal is Atlee’s second consecutive film with Vijay in the lead role. The actor-director duo’s maiden venture, Theri, was also a top-grossing Tamil film last year.

Mersal is a revenge drama that has the corruption in India’s medical industry at the heart of its story. Vijay has played three different roles in the film, which also stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen among others in the lead role.

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