Coolie Underwhelms at Worldwide Box Office Despite Rajinikanth's Star Power

Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj's collaboration, the action thriller Coolie, has concluded its theatrical run after over five weeks. The film was released on August 14, 2025, amid high expectations, but it failed to maintain the momentum it gained in the initial few days.

Coolie opened to an earth-shattering start in India, earning 65 crores on its first day. However, a downward trend was witnessed from the second day onwards, and the film ultimately concluded its Indian box office run at 285 crore net. Adjusting for GST, the gross domestic collection stands at 336.3 crores, much less than Rajinikanth's previous post-COVID blockbuster, Jailer, which earned 348.55 crore net in India.

In the overseas market, Coolie saw a historic start of 76.5 crore gross, but it lost steam much earlier than expected due to mixed reactions from the audience. The film ended its overseas run by earning $20.35 million, which equals 180.63 crores in Indian rupees. Combining the Indian and overseas collections, the final worldwide box office gross for Coolie stands at 516.93 crores.

Despite being Kollywood's fourth-highest-grossing film of all time globally, the collection is much less than expected, as the film had the potential to cross the 700-800 crore gross mark. The film was made on a hefty budget of 350 crores, and it needed to earn 350 crore net in India to enter the safe zone, but it fell short by 65 crores, resulting in a losing verdict at the Indian box office.