Sarkar box office collection in US premieres: AR Murugadoss' film beats Vijay's Theri, Mersal records

AR Murugadoss' much-hyped movie Sarkar has received a brilliant opening at the US box office in the US premieres and shattered the record of Vijay's Theri. It is also likely to beat the record of Mersal.

AR Murugadoss- Vijay is one of hit director and actor combos in the Tamil film industry and this duo has together delivered two big hits like Thuppaki and Kaththi. The success of these movies had generated a lot of curiosity about their third film – Sarkar, which is expected to be a hat-trick success for them.

The hype surrounding Sarkar had created a lot of demand for its theatrical rights for the US, where Vijay boasts of a huge fan base, and several leading distribution houses were in the race to bag the rights. Finally, Narmadha Travels and Kollywood Movies USA had the last laugh as they acquired the rights for a whopping amount of Rs 5.5 crore. The distributors booked around 150 screens across the country for its release.

The distributors also held the preview shows of the AR Murugadoss-directed film in 150 screens on November 5, a day before it hit the screens. Having good advance booking, Sarkar has opened to fantastic response and registered good occupancy. The numbers are yet to be revealed.

Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted at 6.35 on Tuesday, "#Sarkar (Tamil+Telugu) USA hourly gross for premieres on 5 November at 6:30 pm PST is $247,894 from 126 locations with per location average of $1,967. Terrific! Week has just started and we have AT&T BOGO offer on Tuesday!!"

But the latest updates show that Sarkar has collected $278,909 from 134 screens at the US box office in the US premieres. PaniPuri tweeted, "#Sarkar USA Premieres Collections Crossed $300k #Sarkar(Tamil & Telugu) - $303,091 from 140 Locations till 11:25PM CST.. #SarkarDiwali #Thalapathy #SarkarUSPremieres #ThalapathyVijay (sic)."

Mersal and Theri have collected $300,000 and $251,000 at the US box office in the premiere shows and they are the biggest opener for Ilayathalapthy Vijay. As per the latest update, Sarkar has already beaten the record of Theri and Mersal. It has become the biggest opener for the actor.

However, Sarkar has also started with a bang and collected A$158,713 at the Australia box office on its opening day. PaniPuri tweeted, "#Sarkar #Australia Opening day Gross A$158,713 at 2.30PM Australia Time Previous Highest Opening day Gross #Baahubali2Tamil - A$160k #Rangasthalam - A$168k #BharatAneNenu - A$169k #ThalapathyVijay #ThalapathySarkar #KeerthySuresh"