Decoding The Economics Of Coolie: Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj's movie is a profit maker for producers while distributors settle for some losses

Coolie, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, and starring Rajinikanth, has not really lived up to the expectations that everyone had from the film, but the film's still a profit-earner. Here's how.

Published on Aug 23, 2025  |  03:30 PM IST |  35K
Rajinikanth
Coolie is a profitable film if we compare the costs with the returns, but the distributors shall lose money (Credit: Sun Pictures)

Coolie, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, and starring Rajinikanth is in the second week of its run. The film is seeing some good growth over the second weekend but it is not to the level that it could have been, had it got strong word of mouth to begin with. The movie's global total after 9 days, stands at around Rs 425 crore, and by the end of the weekend, it should be Rs 450 crore gross or so.

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Coolie Stabilises In Weekend 2; To Touch Rs 450 Crore Gross By End Of Weekend

The movie's expectations were of breaking existing Kollywood records and creating new ones, and in that sense, the movie has underperformed. However, the collections put up by the movie so far are not bad in any sense. It remains on track to being one of the top 5 highest grossing Kollywood movies of all time, and Rajinikanth has two movies in that list already, with Coolie in contention to be the third.

Coolie Is A Profitable Venture For Sun Pictures, Despite The Massive Budget; Distributors Lose

The film's costs are high due to high remunerations of Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj. But, the producer has still ended up making good profits from the project. Even with mixed to negative word of mouth, if a producer is able to book profits, it shows how big the combination of Rajinikanth and Lokesh is. Yes, the distributors will have to bear a loss to the tune of Rs 25 crore. But here, the distributors are at fault, to be ready to give an absurd amount of money without having any idea about how the movie will turn up, purely on the basis of the actor-director combination. This is not to say that Coolie had no chance to gross higher, but buyers must be a little cautious. If a movie is turning out to be a losing fare for them, even after grossing little under Rs 500 crore worldwide, the buyers are to be blamed.

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Have A Look At The Economics For Coolie

Particulars Amount

Cost Of Production

(Includes Rs 150 crore of Rajinikanth,

Rs 50 crore of Lokesh Kanagaraj and interests)

Rs 360 crore
PnA Rs 30 crore
Total Costs Rs 390 crore
Satellite Rights Rs 70 crore
Digital Rights Rs 130 crore
Music Rs 20 crore
Total Non Theatrical Recoveries Rs 220 crore
Tamil Nadu Share after commission (expected) Rs 63 crore
Andhra States rights  Rs 44 crore (Rs 15 crore loss to buyers) 
Karnataka rights Rs 20 crore (Rs 5 crore loss to buyers)
North India share (after commission and expenses) Rs 13 crore
Kerala share (after commission and expenses) Rs 9 crore
Overseas share  Rs 75 crore (Rs 5 crore loss to buyers)
Total Theatrical Recoveries Rs 224 crore
TOTAL RECOVERIES Rs 444 crore
Profit to Sun Pictures Rs 54 crore

Note: The expected share is based on the current trends

As we have analysed, Sun Pictures will book a profit of around Rs 54 crore, while distributors will lose approximately Rs 25 crore. Both Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj will walk home with the biggest paycheck of their lives. We have to see if any post-release negotiations are made, where a fraction of the talent fee is used to clear a percentage of the distributor losses.

Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.

ALSO READ: Decoding The Economics Of War 2: Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR and Kiara Advani starrer is a losing proposition but YRF mitigates giant losses

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