Coolie vs War 2: The Unstoppable Rajinikanth Crushes Hrithik and Jr NTR Before Release
Hello everyone. Let’s talk about the cinematic version of a heavyweight boxing match that, much like most hyped pay-per-view events, turns out to be one guy showing up with steel-plated gloves, and the other just wearing mittens. The arena? The Indian box office. The contenders? Rajinikanth’s Coolie versus Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR’s War 2. The result so far? Let’s just say Coolie is rolling crit after crit, while War 2 can’t even land a hit on the tutorial boss.
Advance Booking Bloodbath
Numbers don’t just speak-they scream-and right now, Coolie is screaming like an overzealous esports commentator on Red Bull. Four days before release, Coolie racks up ₹10.7 crore in advance booking from its native Tamil language alone, plus modest change from Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada dubs. Throw in block bookings and you’ve got ₹16.15 crore total. That’s a launch so strong it could knock the popcorn out of your hands.
Now, let’s wander over to the other side of the ring, where War 2 is… well, awkwardly fidgeting. It’s coughing up ₹30.28 lakh in ticket pre-sales like a B-grade MMO struggling to break 100 concurrent users. Add in block bookings, and the grand total rockets to… ₹1.22 crore. War? More like mild political tension at the water cooler.
The Disparity Is Not Subtle
Let me put this into medical terms: War 2 is clinically experiencing anticipatory hypoxia-it just can’t catch a breath before the event even begins. Compared to its older siblings in the so-called YRF Spy Universe-War (2019), Pathaan (2023), and Tiger 3-this sequel’s advance sales are not just low, they’re buried somewhere in the Mariana Trench. And the Telugu share? ₹70,000. That’s the price of a gaming rig on sale, not the box office pull of a movie featuring a superstar from Tollywood.
Meanwhile, Coolie has a Hindi dubbed chunk of ₹4 lakh-ironically better than its Telugu dubbed performance-despite being a Tamil film. It’s almost as if audiences collectively decided, “Yes, we’d rather see Rajinikanth wielding swagger as a weapon than watch Roshan and NTR exchange spy banter in Dolby Atmos.”
Production Power & Strategic Cameos
On Team Coolie, we’ve got Lokesh Kanagaraj steering Rajinikanth’s 171st film, backed by Sun Pictures, with a side of Nagarjuna and Shruti Haasan, plus music from Anirudh to seal the triple-A production vibes. Oh, and it coincides with Rajini’s 50 years in film-talk about perfect marketing synergy. The man could release a two-hour video of him sipping tea and it would still crush half of Bollywood’s annual output.
Team War 2 comes from the Yash Raj Films stable, directed by Ayan Mukerji in his first non-Dharma outing. It’s packing Hrithik back in superspy mode, Kiara as a conveniently pretty love interest, and Shah Rukh Khan supposedly popping in as Pathaan. A decent arsenal, sure-but if you’ve got a sniper rifle and forget to load bullets, good luck winning the firefight.
The Conspiracy Theorist’s Take
Is this a simple case of poor promotion, or is there a deeper plot twist? Maybe YRF blew its marketing budget on VFX coffee breaks while Sun Pictures knew exactly how to hype a film like a rare loot drop in an MMORPG. Or perhaps audiences remember that most spy thrillers now come with the subtlety of a sledgehammer hitting a piñata and are choosing the gangster crime drama instead. But that’s just speculation… or is it?
Final Verdict
So here’s the diagnosis: Coolie is healthy, strong, and about to kick down the box office’s front door. War 2 might need CPR before Independence Day even arrives. Advance booking isn’t always a guarantee of long-term performance, but right now, the Rajinikanth machine is in full glorious overdrive, and the YRF spy-mobile is trying to start in second gear with an empty tank.
Overall impression? Coolie is setting itself up for a box office reign, War 2 is setting itself up for a sobering Monday meeting. No contest in the advance booking round – this was a knockout strike before the bell even rang.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: Coolie vs War 2 advance booking: Rajinikanth’s film races far ahead of Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR’s action thriller, already earns Rs 16 cr, https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/tamil/coolie-vs-war-2-advance-booking-rajinikanths-film-races-far-ahead-of-hrithik-roshan-thriller-10180474/
