Director Lokesh Kanagaraj‘s Tamil-language Leo starring Tamil superstar Vijay, debuted in third position at the global box office over the latest weekend, with USD 31.2 million planetwide, according to estimates released by a media company.
The weekend was won by Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, with USD 44 million, followed by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour with USD 41.5 million, stated reports.
However, in terms of worldwide cumulative among new releases, Leo scored USD 48.5 million (after four days) compared with the USD 44 million earned by Killers of the Flower Moon. A homage to David Cronenberg’s 2005 film A History of Violence, Leo was released on October 19.
According to sources, the action-thriller follows a docile cafe owner (Vijay) who is incited to return to his violent past. The cast also includes Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Madonna Sebastian, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Mysskin, Mansoor Ali Khan, George Maryan, Priya Anand and Mathew Thomas.
In the US, Leo was released by Prathyangira Cinemas and earned USD 2.1 million over the weekend. In the UK and Ireland, it was released by Ahimsa Entertainment and collected USD 1.3 million in its first three days of release.
Leo is the latest instalment in Kanagaraj’s LCU (Lokesh Cinematic Universe) which began with Kaithi (2019) and continued with Vikram in 2022. Characters from Kaithi and the 2022 Vikram make appearances in Leo. This is the second time that Vijay, known to his fans as ‘Thalapathy’ (commander), is teaming with Lokesh. They previously collaborated on Master which was released in 2021.