Pongal box office clash: Dhanush’s Captain Miller and Sivakarthikeyan’s Ayalaan take up maximum screens in Tamil Nadu

Captain Miller, a high-on-violence period film, shows Dhanush as a soldier turned vigilante. The film’s violent scenes had drawn CBFC’s attention and director Arun Matheswaran was asked to make several cuts. On the other hand, Ayalaan, helmed by R Ravikumar, is a family-friendly sci-fi film, with elements of comedy.

Trade analyst and industry expert Ramesh Bala says that both the films have substantially different audience, hence might not eat into each other’s business.

Bala said, “Ayalaan is a kind of family entertainer for kids. Captain Miller is an action movie. So in terms of screen space and box office potential, both have equal potential. Just to be fair, we want to see the word of mouth. It’s a six-day long weekend. So there is going to be enough audience for both films. Both can become number one.”

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He added, “Mission by Arun Vijay will be the third film in terms of screen space. Vijay Sethupathi’s Merry Christmas will be a dubbed film, and will have just the multiplexes, especially with Katrina Kaif and Sriram Raghavan having a limited audience here. So it will slowly grow at the box office.”

In terms of box office numbers, both Captain Miller and Ayalaan are expected to enter the Rs 100 crore club.

Chennai-based trade expert Sreedhar Pillai points out that Sriram Raghavan’s directorial Merry Christmas and Mission: Chapter 1 will have to make do with their multiplex run.

“Captain Miller, Ayalaan, Mission of Arun Vijay and Merry Christmas, all these four films look very very exciting. Of course, Captain Miller and Ayalaan are from two big stars, and it will take the cake. They have a better chance of getting good results. The other two movies will have to be happy with multiplexes,” he said