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Tamil actor Vijay’s latest film Leo has witnessed record-breaking first day collections for the action thriller in the UAE, with admission numbers that have surpassed that of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Rajinikanth’s Jailer.
According to data shared by Phars Films, which holds the international distribution rights for the Lokesh Kanagaraj directorial, Leo opened on October 19 in the UAE with 114,914 admissions, generating 4.89 million dirhams ($1.32 million) in the first day of collections.
By comparison, Jawan, which released in the country nearly six weeks earlier, saw the Khan-starrer report 71,911 admissions or AED 3.32 million in gross earnings on day one, while Jailer recorded 115,000 admissions on its opening day across the GCC, according to distributors Home Screen Entertainment.
The opening day collections of Leo across the Middle East, including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, grossed $2.36 million, according to official figures.
“I have never seen such a thunderous opening for any film in the UAE before; it’s better than the opening of Jawan, any James Bond film, the Titanic…,” said Ahmad Golchin, founder and chairman of Phars Films. “Leo has opened alongside Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moonwith Leonardo DiCaprio, but you cannot even compare their businesses. In fact, the Hollywood production has been delayed in several markets to accommodate Leo’s business.”
He continued that if this momentum continues, they were expecting the opening weekend of the film to surpass 300,000 admissions in the UAE alone.
According to Golchin, Leo has opened across a total of 300 locations across the GCC, showing in 1,500 screens in Tamil and Hindi languages. In the UAE, the movie has occupied 421 screens.
The movie, which is an official remake of the 2005 Hollywood production, A History of Violence, has opened to mixed reviews in India with several critics stating the film’s opening draw is largely due to the star power wielded by its lead star Vijay.
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Daniel Luiz)
