Good Bad Ugly Day 2 collection: Ajith’s best-ever opening slips into Vidaamuyarchi territory

Ajith Kumar’s Good Bad Ugly hit a speed bump on Saturday. After an opening that raked in nearly ₹29 crore, the film crashed hard on Day 2 with collections plunging to ₹13.5 crore, a drop of over 65%. 

The initial euphoria has given way to concern as the two-day total limps to ₹42.75 crore, leaving trade analysts questioning whether Ajith’s record-breaking opener is already losing steam.

The pattern mirrors Ajith’s previous release Vidaamuyarchi, which opened strong but “tanked immediately,” ending up as one of his biggest flops. 

While Good Bad Ugly has outperformed Vidaamuyarchi’s Day 2 number of ₹10.25 crore, the steep slide has set off alarm bells.

Despite this, the film made history with Ajith’s biggest global opening ever — a ₹50–51 crore worldwide debut, surpassing Valimai’s ₹47 crore record. Of this, ₹34 crore came from India and ₹17 crore (USD 1.96 million) from overseas.

Tamil Nadu led the charge on Day 1, with Chennai recording 95% occupancy across 924 shows. Other cities — Coimbatore (92.75%), Madurai (90%), Trichy (94.75%) — followed closely. Even Pondicherry clocked 94.50%. Bengaluru held up decently at 53.75%, while Kerala cities Kochi and Trivandrum showed 74.25% and 71.50% occupancy respectively.

But Day 2 told a different story. Tamil Nadu’s overall occupancy dropped to 42.89%, with morning shows crashing to just 28.80%.

Initial projections had pegged a ₹120 crore extended weekend haul. That now looks unlikely unless Saturday and Sunday show sharp recovery. The post-opening dip is raising fears of a Vidaamuyarchi-like slide, which ended its run at around ₹80 crore net.

Still, there's a safety net. Netflix has picked up Good Bad Ugly’s digital rights for a reported ₹95 crore — the highest OTT deal for an Ajith film. 

The film will stream in five languages by May.