Thug Life crashes at the box office; Theatre owners in talks to seek compensation

Thug Life, a film that reunited Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam after 37 years, has failed to impress at the box office despite the hype around its stellar cast and crew. The film, which marked a highly anticipated collaboration, is now facing further trouble after its commercial failure.

This is one of the rare instances in recent years where a Mani Ratnam film has been met with such a poor reception. Even before completing its first week in theatres, several cinema halls in Tamil Nadu reportedly stopped screening Thug Life. In Kerala, theatres that were running the film replaced it with the re-released film Chotta Mumbai. According to emerging reports, theatre owners in Tamil Nadu are preparing to demand compensation for their losses.

It is being reported that theatre owners are considering seeking damages from the producers Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, as well as from the distributor, Red Giant Movies. The film's OTT rights were reportedly sold to Netflix under a ₹130 crore deal. However, sources indicate that this agreement is likely to be reviewed and that the value may be reduced by as much as 25 percent.

In Tamil cinema, the standard window for OTT release is typically 28 days after theatrical release, whereas for Hindi films, it is 56 days.

In cases of box office failure, it is usually the producers who bear the primary financial losses. However, distributors also incur losses in proportion to their revenue-sharing agreement with theatre owners. There have been past instances where leading stars have compensated theatre owners when their films performed poorly.

According to a report in Sacnilk, Thug Life earned ₹45 crore over the weekend. In contrast, Kamal Haasan’s 2022 film Vikram grossed ₹168 crore during the same period.