Vijay's "Puli" has got a dream opening in Chennai in its first weekend. The underlining part of the story is that the Tamil movie has beaten SS Rajamouli's magnum opus "Baahubali".

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Behindwoods reports that "Puli" has raked in Rs 2.84 crore in its first weekend at the Chennai box office. The movie had 465 shows, in which it enjoyed an average of 90% occupancy in the four days. Indeed, it has smashed the record of "Baahubali", which had collected Rs 1.66 crore from 363 shows from its two versions (Tamil and Telugu). 

But, "Baahubali" made the aforementioned business in three days, unlike "Puli", which made Rs 2.84 crore from four days with Gandhi Jayanthi holiday working in favour of the flick. Adding to that, the solo release helped Vijay's movie post a huge number at the collection centres.

"Puli" has also performed better than the movies, which have been in theatres for the past few weeks. Nayantara's latest release "Maya" had 90 shows last weekend, from which it has earned Rs 19.38 lakh. The total collection of the flick now stands at Rs 2.68 crore by the end of its third weekend.

"Thani Oruvan" had 54 shows and raked in Rs 9.12 lakh. The Jayam Ravi and Arvind Swamy starrer has so far collected Rs 6.33 crore by the end of its sixth weekend. The Vijay starrer is expected to break this record by next weekend.

According to traders, the total collection of the movie would have easily crossed the Rs 3-crore mark if "Puli" had not faced last-minute release issues, which resulted in the cancellation of early morning and later shows.

'Puli' Tamil Nadu Business
Meanwhile, "Puli" has done an impressive business in its first weekend in Tamil Nadu. The trade reports say that the flick has earned Rs 32 crore with a net business of Rs 27 crore in the opening weekend. The coming days are crucial for the movie as the film has to make good business to recover its invested money of Rs 100+ crore.