Box office collection: Vijay's Jana Nayagan opens at Rs 41 crore as The Odyssey nears Rs 100 cr and Dhamaal 4 crosses Rs 136 crore

After a delay of nearly seven months, Jana Nayagan finally arrived in cinemas on Thursday July 23, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay's fans made sure the occasion was not understated. The film, being promoted as Vijay's final screen appearance before he dedicates himself fully to his political career, opened to the kind of celebratory atmosphere that only a star of his stature in the Tamil film industry can generate.

The numbers backed the sentiment. According to Sacnilk data, Jana Nayagan collected Rs 41 crore on its opening day in India. The Tamil version drove the bulk of that figure with Rs 36.50 crore, while the Telugu version contributed Rs 2.75 crore and the Hindi markets added Rs 1.75 crore.

The opening puts Jana Nayagan among the stronger Tamil film debuts of recent times and signals that whatever the delay cost the film in terms of momentum during its promotional cycle, it did not cost it the audience's enthusiasm on the day.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which released on July 17 with a cast including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, has been one of the standout performers at the Indian box office this month. Its run through the first week demonstrated the sustained drawing power that Nolan's films consistently find in India.

On its sixth day, Wednesday, the film earned Rs 6.50 crore. Thursday, its seventh day, brought in Rs 6.15 crore, its lowest single-day collection of the week, which is expected given the competition Jana Nayagan brought to the multiplex on that day. The cumulative net collection in India now stands at Rs 90.30 crore after one week.

The Rs 100 crore milestone is within reach and appears a matter of days away at the current pace, which would make The Odyssey another Nolan film to cross that threshold in the Indian market, continuing a consistent record for the director here.

Dhamaal 4 Crosses Rs 136 Crore in Two Weeks

Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Sanjeeda Sheikh's Dhamaal 4 has now been running in cinemas for two weeks since its July 10 release and has settled into the kind of steady daily collection that signals a film finding its audience across multiple weekends rather than burning bright and fading quickly.

The comedy earned Rs 2.75 crore on Wednesday and Rs 2.15 crore on Thursday, its 14th day. Total net collections now stand at Rs 136.66 crore, comfortably within the Rs 100 crore club that marks commercial success for a mainstream Hindi film. The second-week numbers reflect a natural deceleration after the opening burst, but the cumulative total confirms the film delivered on its commercial promise.

New Releases Enter the Frame

Thursday also saw fresh titles arrive in cinemas. Kajal Aggarwal and Shreyas Talpade's The India Story, Tera Yaar Hoon Main featuring Paresh Rawal and an ensemble cast directed by Milap Zaveri, and Annu Kapoor's Uttar Da Puttar all opened on July 23.

Their performance in the coming days will be shaped in part by how much screen space Jana Nayagan commands given its strong opening and the ongoing presence of The Odyssey and Dhamaal 4, both of which retain audience interest heading into the weekend.

A Box Office July Worth Watching

The third week of July 2026 has produced an unusually competitive multiplex environment. A Nolan epic in its second week, a two-week-old comedy sequel still pulling crowds and now a major Tamil star's farewell film all sharing screens simultaneously is not a configuration that arrives every month.

For cinema exhibitors, the competition for screens is a welcome problem to have after periods of thin release slates. For audiences, the choice reflects a genuinely active season that shows no sign of slowing before August arrives.