Thalapathy Vijay’s “Leo” is one of the keenly awaited films in the last quarter of 2023. The film is generating enough heat among fans and trade circles as its release date approaches in four weeks.
After Atlee’s Jawan turned out to be a 1000-crore film, Thalapathy fans are expecting Leo also to become a 1000-crore grosser. But even the Tamil media is questioning where will the 1000 crores come from.
Leo will do its best business in Tamil Nadu. But it can’t generate a business of more than 300 crores with the best word of mouth. The Telugu markets will definitely perform better than the last few Vijay films, mainly due to the Lokesh Kangaraj factor, who has a formidable following among the Telugu audience.
There are bleak chances of Leo doing well in Hindi mainly because Vijay’s films don’t have much market there, and also, the 8-week OTT clause by Hindi distributors and exhibitors will make it tough for the film to have a huge number of shows and screens in the North.
The overseas business will be good but will stay in the range of 4-5 million. The overall gross of Leo, considering it gets a huge positive talk from the public, cannot cross 400-500 crores in the best scenario.
Just because a Tamil director delivered a 1000-crore film doesn’t mean Leo will also do the same. Basically, for any film to score big and become a 1000-crore film, stars and technicians from two industries need to come together. Leo doesn’t meet that factor.
So, it is better to have realistic expectations from Leo.
