Thalapathy Vijay’s farewell film Jana Nayagan is struggling at the North American box office. On Sunday, the film collected around $164K, taking its total collection in the US and Canada to about $1.3 million.
Some fans point out that Jana Nayagan was postponed several times before its release. They also say an HD print leaked online well before the release, while extremely negative reviews further hurt its theatrical run. These factors certainly had an impact.
However, when compared to Vijay’s own box office record, the numbers are still disappointing.
His previous film, The Greatest of All Time (GOAT), also received negative reviews but still collected around $3.48 million in North America. Jana Nayagan is unlikely to get anywhere close to that total.
The difference is even bigger in the overseas market. GOAT ended its overseas run with around $15 million gross. In comparison, Jana Nayagan is currently struggling to cross the $7.5 million mark overseas.
The postponements and piracy leak affected the film’s performance. However, the box office numbers also suggest that the content itself failed to connect strongly with audiences. It could not attract the kind of footfalls that Vijay‘s biggest blockbusters usually enjoy.
Even GOAT, which ended its worldwide run with around Rs. 400 crore gross, was considered an underperformer by Vijay’s standards. As things stand now, Jana Nayagan may struggle to even reach Rs. 300 crore gross worldwide.
For an actor who ruled Tamil cinema for nearly two decades, expectations for his farewell film were naturally very high. Instead, Jana Nayagan not only received some of the weakest reviews of Vijay’s career but also disappointed at the box office.
