Lucifer sprints past Rs 100 cr mark worldwide; Majili delivers career-best opening for Naga Chaitanya

Malayalam blockbuster Lucifer starring Mohanlal continues to dominate the box-office in both domestic and overseas markets. In 12 days, the film, which released on 28 March, has comfortably vaulted over the Rs 100 cr mark and become the second project from Mollywood to achieve the milestone after Mohanlal’s Pulimurugan (Rs 134 cr), which took nearly a month to attain the same. After becoming the fastest Malayalam film to enter the Rs 50 cr club, as we had reported last week, Lucifer, which marks the directorial debut of actor Prithviraj Sukumaran (who also plays a crucial role in the film), is shattering every record set by Pulimurugan in foreign territories. While Lucifer has become the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever in the non-Kerala domestic market with a solid total of around Rs 9 cr from 11 days, it’s now the first ever movie from Mollywood to touch the $6 million mark from overseas receipts. [caption id=“attachment_6342811” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  A still from Lucifer. Twitter/@gladwinpaul[/caption] The cumulative foreign takings of Lucifer, written by Murali Gopy and produced by Antony Perumbavoor’s Aashirvad Cinemas, stand at a fantastic $6.402 million (Rs 44.34 cr) in 11 days. Lucifer surpassed the lifetime earnings of biggest overseas grossers like Pulimurugan ($5.66 million; Rs 38.5 cr), Premam ($4.4 million; Rs 28 cr), and Kayamkulam Kochunni ($3.43 million; Rs 24.5 cr) to name a few. Lucifer is currently the top-grossing Malayalam film in the UK and Ireland, the Asia-Pacific region, the USA, the UAE, and GCC. In the USA, a gradually-booming market for Mollywood films, Lucifer has become the first Malayalam film to touch the $500K mark. In the UK and Ireland region, the film has become the first Malayalam movie to breach past the £250 mark. The combined total of New Zealand and Australia amounts to more than Rs 1 cr. The Gulf markets have contributed the lion’s share of the overseas total with a solid $4.94 million in just 11 days. With more than 3.25 lakh admissions from the UAE alone in 10 days, the film has hauled in Rs 22.16 cr in the territory. The GCC total also stands at a massive Rs 11.59 cr in 10 days with more than 2.05 lakh admissions. The film has pocketed close to Rs 35 cr from the UAE-GCC territory alone. In Kerala, Lucifer is currently the third highest-grossing film after Pulimurugan and Baahubali: The Conclusion. Reports say the Telugu dubbed version of Lucifer will release in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on 12 April. The movie pulled in a total of more than Rs 31 cr in its first week in Kerala, making it another first for the industry. In Tamil, Hip-hop Tamizha’s sports drama Natpe Thunai , which hit screens on 4 April, has taken a good opening at the box-office in TN. With Rs 11.7 cr gross from the four-day opening weekend in the state, the film, directed by debutant Parthipan Desingu, has taken the third highest opening of 2019 after Ajith’s Viswasam and Rajinikanth’s Petta. Director-actor Vijay Kumar’s Uriyadi 2 opened in cinemas on 5 April and received rave reviews from across the board. The film, which released in nearly 150 screens in TN, secured a decent opening of Rs 2.3 cr in the state. Produced by Suriya’s 2D Entertainment, the film was released by Sakthivelan’s Sakthi Film Factory in TN and screens have been gradually added for the film owing to positive WOM from audiences. Acclaimed holdover multi-starrer _Super Deluxe_ helmed by Aaranya Kaandam fame Thiagarajan Kumararaja has reportedly earned a total of Rs 15.2 cr in TN including until the end of the second weekend (7 April). The film is still holding on to a decent number of screens in multiplexes in Chennai, Chengalpet and Coimbatore territories. Another film which is making waves at the box-office is Telugu romance drama Majili, directed by Shiva Nirvana and starring Naga Chaitanya, and Samantha Akkineni. The film has collected a superb opening weekend total of Rs 29 cr worldwide, with a distributor share of close to Rs 18 cr. Tollywood trade expects the hold sustain at the box-office for quite some time this month since no big releases are coming up. Majili’s opening figures also mark Naga Chaitanya’s career-best opening and have provided the much-needed commercial success for the actor. Majili was also the top-grossing film in India for the weekend of 5-7 April.