Retro Box Office: Suriya starrer becomes the fourth highest grossing Tamil film of 2025 worldwide yet not profitable

Retro Box Office: The much-hyped action-romance entertainer Retro was released in theaters recently on May 1, 2025. Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, the film stars Suriya and Pooja Hegde as the lead pair. Although the film generated significant pre-release buzz, its post-release reception was considerably lower. Despite the lukewarm response, the Suriya-starrer has managed to surpass Madha Gaja Raja, the most profitable film of 2025.

How Madha Gaja Raja became highly profitable

Madha Gaja Raja was an action-comedy film directed by Sundar C., starring Vishal, Santhanam, Anjali, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sonu Sood, Manivannan, Subbaraju, Nithin Sathya, and others. The film was met with widespread appreciation from audiences and went on to collect Rs 63 crore worldwide. With a profit margin of 224.6%, this action-comedy entertainer became the most profitable Tamil film of 2025.

Retro outgrosses the most profitable Tamil film of 2025

In just one week of its theatrical run, Retro has collected Rs 85.50 crore worldwide. Of this global total, the Indian market contributed the most with Rs 60 crore, while the film grossed USD 3 million (approximately Rs 25.50 crore) from its overseas run. This one-week worldwide collection has pushed the Suriya-starrer past Madha Gaja Raja, which had previously held the title of the most profitable Tamil film of 2025.

However, Retro itself is not a profitable venture, as the film has yet to recover its production budget from its box office earnings. The Suriya-starrer appears unlikely to achieve this milestone, given its consistent daily decline at the box office.

Several Tamil films currently boast a higher worldwide gross than Retro, including Ajith Kumar’s Good Bad Ugly, Vidaamuyarchi, and Pradeep Ranganathan’s Dragon — none of which Retro seems poised to overtake anytime soon. Among the three, Vidaamuyarchi has the lowest worldwide gross at Rs 138 crore, followed by Dragon with Rs 152 crore. Topping the list is Good Bad Ugly, with a massive Rs 242 crore in worldwide collections.

As Retro turns out to be another underperformer for Suriya, the actor is set to appear next in director RJ Balaji’s upcoming film, tentatively titled Suriya 45. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.

Disclaimer: The box office figures are compiled from various sources and our research. The figures can be approximate, and Pinkvilla does not make any claims about the authenticity of the data. However, they are adequately indicative of the box-office performance of the films in question.

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