Kollywood
Hi Box Office Day 1: Kavin and Nayanthara's Soulful Chemistry Wins Hearts; Grosses ₹1.44 Cr Amid Glowing Reviews
Pairing the rising screen presence of Kavin with the veteran grace of Nayanthara, the release of Hi marks a significant moment for mid-range Tamil cinema,. The film has opened to an overwhelmingly positive reception, with audiences and critics alike describing the lead pair's chemistry as soulful and refreshing. In an era dominated by high-octane action, the trade notes that Tamil cinema has been missing such grounded, emotional narratives. A major pillar of this success is attributed to Jen Martin, whose musical score is being hailed as the soul of the film, driving the emotional depth of the story. On its opening Friday, Hi managed to secure a gross collection of 1.44 crore in India across 786 tracked shows. The audience interest is clearly reflected in the ticket sales momentum on digital platforms. Over the last 24 hours, the film sold 46.5K tickets on BookMyShow, bringing its total ticket sales on the platform to 58.28K. In the national multiplex chains, the performance remained steady for a film of this genre. The combined gross from PVR, INOX, and Cinepolis reached approximately 18.30 lakh. Breaking this down, PVR led the contribution with 12.20 lakh, followed by INOX at 4.70 lakh and Cinepolis at 1.40 lakh. While these numbers represent a niche start, the strong word-of-mouth is expected to propel these figures over the weekend. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) The Tamil version served as the primary driver for the film, contributing a net of 1.15 crore with an overall occupancy of 36.0 percent across 628 shows. The day followed a healthy growth trajectory, starting with 22.85 percent occupancy in the morning and climbing to 35.46 percent in the afternoon. Although there was a slight dip in the evening to 25.69 percent, the night shows witnessed a massive surge, hitting 56.69 percent occupancy. Regionally, Chennai was the top performer with 154 shows operating at an impressive 55 percent occupancy. Coimbatore followed with 60 shows at 42 percent, while Madurai recorded 35 percent occupancy across 37 shows. In Bengaluru, the Tamil version ran 38 shows with a 28 percent occupancy rate. The Telugu version of the film had a more limited release, netting 0.10 crore across 158 shows with an overall occupancy of 21.0 percent. The morning started very slowly at 2.85 percent, but showed signs of life in the afternoon at 11.08 percent. The evening shows averaged 6.69 percent, but similar to the Tamil market, the night shows saw the best traction at 16.38 percent. In terms of major Telugu hubs, Hyderabad led the way with 49 shows recording 26 percent occupancy. Vizag-Visakhapatnam saw 12 shows with an average occupancy of 22.3 percent. While the Telugu numbers are currently modest, the positive reviews for the Kavin-Nayanthara pairing might help in late-night and weekend bookings. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) From a state-wise gross perspective, the distribution highlights the film's reliance on its home territory. Tamil Nadu contributed the bulk of the revenue with 1.15 crore gross. The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions followed with 0.15 crore gross. Karnataka added another 0.10 crore to the tally, while Kerala and the Rest of India circuits each contributed a gross of 0.02 crore. This brings the cumulative India gross to 1.44 crore for Day 1.
