Chennai: Rajinikanth's Jailer 2 has now gone where no Tamil film had gone before, and stopped just short of the line Tamil cinema has been chasing for years.
The Nelson Dilipkumar film, released on October 15, crossed ₹800 crore in worldwide gross over its third weekend. Trade trackers put the figure between ₹807 crore and ₹812 crore. It is now the highest-grossing Tamil film ever and the 16th highest-grossing Indian film, and the second biggest Indian release of 2026 behind Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which has taken ₹1,813.39 crore.
On its 18th day, Sunday, November 1, the film recorded an India net collection of ₹11.20 crore from 8,906 shows, a 15.5 per cent rise over Saturday's ₹9.70 crore. That took domestic net earnings to ₹456.30 crore. The Tamil version contributed ₹8 crore to the day's total, the Hindi version ₹1.75 crore and the Telugu ₹1 crore.
The weekend spike did not carry into the week. On Monday, its 19th day, the film collected about ₹3.40 crore, taking India net to roughly ₹459.71 crore and the worldwide gross to about ₹812 crore on one tracker's count. Occupancy across the Tamil market on Sunday was 35.77 per cent, climbing from 25.62 per cent in the morning shows to 45.08 per cent in the evening.
The ₹1,000 crore mark that Tamil cinema has long wanted now looks unlikely. The film has been in theatres for three weeks, a fourth is approaching, and the daily numbers have settled into single-digit crores.
Jailer 2 is the sequel to the 2023 Jailer, again directed by Nelson. The cast includes S.J. Suryah, Vidya Balan, Ramya Krishnan, Mithun Chakraborty, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Yogi Babu. Anirudh Ravichander composed the music, Vijay Kartik Kannan handled cinematography and R. Nirmal the editing.
An OTT release is expected once the film completes its four-week theatrical window.