Scene box office day 3: Rs 116 crore, and overseas is pulling hard

Scene has grossed Rs 116.65 crore worldwide in three days, and it is already closing in on the record Suriya held for 13 years before this year. Jithu Madhavan’s crime comedy needs only another Rs 4 to 5 crore to pass Singam 2’s Rs 120 to 122 crore, which would make it the second-highest-grossing film of Suriya’s career, behind only this year’s Karuppu. It has already overtaken Singam 3 and is within touching distance of 24.

The film has grown every day. India net went from Rs 19.15 crore on Friday to Rs 20.35 crore on Saturday and Rs 23.25 crore on Sunday, a 14.3 per cent rise from Saturday. That brings the three-day India net to Rs 62.75 crore and the gross to Rs 72.90 crore. Sunday was busier as well as bigger: 6,001 shows at 70.7 per cent average occupancy, up from 5,687 shows at 62.5 per cent the day before, and 17,855 shows across the weekend.

The overseas figure is what stands out. Scene has made Rs 43.75 crore abroad in three days, about 37.5 per cent of its worldwide gross. Karuppu, which opened stronger at home with Rs 68 crore India net over its first three days, had made Rs 46 crore overseas after five. At this pace, Scene will pass that early this week. Jithu’s following from Romancham and Aavesham among Malayali audiences in the Gulf, plus Nazriya Nazim and Naslen in the cast, has probably brought in viewers abroad whom a typical Suriya action film would not reach.

At home, the Tamil version accounts for Rs 51.90 crore of the India net and the Telugu version for Rs 10.85 crore. All this came against Ramayana and Nayanthara’s Mookuthi Amman 2, which opened in the same Diwali week.

Scene is Jithu’s first Tamil film. Suriya plays DSP Inbaraj, a lazy, brilliant officer pulled back into work when a new murder copies the Perfume Killer, a serial killer he caught years earlier. Nazriya, in her first Tamil film in 12 years, plays Maya, his unlikely partner in the investigation, and Naslen, in his Tamil debut, plays the killer. Jyotika and Suriya produced the film, and Jyotika’s surprise cameo is getting some of the loudest cheers in theatres. Our review gave it four stars and called it Suriya’s loosest, funniest work in years, which helps explain why each day of the weekend was bigger than the last.