Vijay Devarakonda's Taxiwaala declared hit with Rs 17 cr collections over two days; Amar Akbar Anthony crashes

Vijay Devarakonda-starrer, supernatural thriller  Taxiwaala , is the widely discussed South film of this week for a number of reasons. The movie, directed by debutant Rahul Sankrityan, was fully leaked on the internet a few days before it hit screens officially on 17 November. But nothing has deterred Devarakonda’s fans from watching the movie in theaters. The film, produced by SKN, has taken a flying start at the box office by raking in Rs 17 crore worldwide in just two days. It has successfully entered into the profit zone everywhere. [caption id=“attachment_5537751” align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]  Vijay Devarakonda in a promotional still of Taxiwaala. Twitter[/caption] Bouncing back from the box office debacle of  _NOTA_ , Devarakonda proved his box office mettle once again with Taxiwaala, his second hit of 2018 after  _Geetha Govindam_ , which emerged as one of the biggest profit earners in the history of Tollywood, with a worldwide share of Rs 70 crore . The worldwide theatrical of Taxiwaala, which was jointly presented by Geetha Arts and UV Creations, was valued at Rs 7 crore and the shoestring budget has helped the film vault over the break even mark in no time. The overseas rights of the film were reportedly sold for Rs 1 crore. The distributors have completely recovered it on the opening day alone. The worldwide two-day share of the film is pegged at Rs 9 crore. The film is all set to become a super-duper blockbuster at the ticket window in the upcoming days. In the US, where Devarakonda’s films have registered good figures in the past,  Taxiwaala has earned $41,479 (Rs 3.08 crore) from two days (including premieres). Taxiwaala has clearly outpaced Ravi Teja -starrer _Amar Akbar Anthony_ , which released a day before the Devarakonda-starrer and earned Rs 7 crore on its opening day. The Srinu Vaitla-directed film, which was unanimously panned by critics, has crashed at the box office and slowed down during the weekend. Holdover film  _Savyasachi_ , which featured Naga Chaitanya, R Madhavan and Bhumika Chawla in the lead roles, has been declared a big flop at the box office, with a worldwide share of Rs 8.7 crore against its theatrical value of Rs 22.5 crore. Thalapathy Vijay-starrer _Sarkar_  is nearing the final leg of its theatrical run in both domestic and offshore territories, as exhibitors across the world are gearing up for the release of superstar Rajinikanth-starrer _2.0_  on 29 November. Now, there is precisely a final nine-day window left for the film, directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Sun Pictures, to accumulate as much as it could at the box office before 2.0 takes over the screens. While Sarkar has already dethroned _Rangasthalam_  to become the highest grossing South film of 2018, the film is yet to achieve the ‘Hit’ status in a handful of important regions including Vijay’s home ground Tamil Nadu. With an estimated gross of Rs 120 crore from 13 days, Sarkar has recovered 85 percent of its investment in the state and is likely to do a minimal damage to distributors at the end of the full run. The global running total of Sarkar stands at a whopping Rs 232 crores. It is currently the fourth highest grossing Tamil film ever after Enthiran, Kabali and Mersal. In the US, Sarkar is struggling to race past the $1 million mark with a total of $999,899 (Rs 7.19 crore) until 18 November (Sunday). In the UAE-GCC region, Sarkar has become a solid blockbuster, garnering a cumulative total of Rs 16.43 crore from 12 days. It is currently the top grossing Tamil film in the UAE-GCC territory, beating Rajinikanth-starrer _Kaala_  (Rs 9.3 crore) by a huge margin. In Chennai, Sarkar has pulled in a peachy total of Rs 13.59 crore from 13 days, making it the second highest grossing Tamil film in the region after Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (Rs 18.25 crore). In the last few days, Sarkar has outpaced Mersal (Rs 13.1 crore) and Kabali (Rs 12.4 crore) to earn the second spot in the all time highest Chennai grossers list. In fact, despite new releases in Vijay Antony-starrer _Thimiru Pudichavan_ , Jyotika0-starrer _Kaatrin Mozhi_  and the Hollywood spectacle  Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Sarkar topped the Chennai box office for the weekend ending 18 November. _(Also read: Vijay's Sarkar, Rajinikanth's 2.0 create commotion in Tamil cinema as smaller films fight for screens)_