Empuraan’ Ranks Among Top Global Grossers
Indian stars Mohanlal and Prithviraj Sukumaran on a poster of the Malayalam film ‘L 2: Empuraan’.
Mohanlal’s new Malayalam film L2: Empuraan is creating a storm at the box office. The new film, directed by actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran, is now the third highest-grossing film worldwide. With a $19.4 million opening weekend collection, the Indian film has had a good weekend box office run.
Empuraan Scores $20 Million, Ranks Among Top Global Grossers This Weekend
Comscore’s latest rankings for best-scoring films worldwide features the Indian film L2: Empuraan at the third spot, right below Disney’s Snow White and A Working Man. Scoring more than a million in the US markets alone, the Malayalam film is also eleventh highest-grossing movie in the US for the weekend ending March 30.
L 2: Empuraan Box Office Report
Indian star Mohanlal features in the lead role in ‘L 2: Empuraan’.
Empuraan earned more than $6 million in advance sales for the opening day, ahead of the film’s theatrical release. It eventually made more than $7 million on Thursday, its first day at the ticket windows. The film saw an upward trend at the box office over the next few days.
Mohanlal-Prithviraj Sukumaran’s new film crossed the $10 million-mark on its second day at the ticket windows. By the end of Sunday, its four-day-long weekend at the box office, Empuraan scored an impressive $19.4 million global collection. It made $12 million in just three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the global box office. After collecting more than $19 million by Sunday, the Malayalam movie crossed $20 million-mark at the global box office on Monday.
In India, Empuraan had an opening of nearly $ 3 million and the scores further improved over the weekend.
L 2: Empuraan – Controversy and ‘voluntary changes’
Just days after the film’s release, L 2: Empuraan producer Antony Perumbavoor told the media that changes affecting more than two minutes of the film will be made and released in theatres soon. The re-edited version of the Malayalam film is now running in theatres. Insisting that the film’s entire team decided to make the changes to ensure they did not hurt anyone, Perumbavoor added that it was not because of any threats or pressure.
The film’s portrayal of the right-wing politics, especially around 2002 Gujarat riots, led to controversies. Following the social media backlash, lead star Mohanlal shared an apology on his social media page. “Certain political and social themes that have emerged in the making of Empuraan, which is the second part of Lucifer, have pained a large number of people who love me. Therefore, I and the Empuraan team sincerely regret the mental pain caused to my loved ones. With the realization that the responsibility for it lies with all of us who worked behind the film, we have decided together to compulsorily remove such parts from the movie.”
Empuraan: Expert speak
Ahead of the film’s release, PVR INOX Ltd CEO-Revenue & Operations Gautam Dutta said in a press release that the film sold more than 123,000 tickets in advance sales for the first day alone. It also sold around 200,000 tickets for the weekend in advance bookings.
L 2: Empuraan
L 2: Empuraan is the third film that Prithviraj Sukumaran has directed. Sukumaran made his directorial debut with the film’s first part, Lucifer in 2019. He also directed the 2020 film Bro Daddy.
Written by Murali Gopy, L 2: Empuraan tells the story of Stephen Nedumpally. Mohanlal plays the role of Nedumpally while Sukumaran appears as his close aide. It is Sukumaran’s childhood journey which involves the 2002 Gujarat riots and has been the center of the controversy.
Made for the masses, Empuraan excels in bringing together a political cocktail mixed with emotions of revenge and high-octane action sequences. It successfully shows the chaos created by the nexus between politics and crime. The emotional stories linked with characters portrayed as cold-blooded killers trained by terrorists have left the film amid wide criticism over its intentions. RSS mouthpiece Organiser, as well as several others have called out the portrayal of various communities in the film.
L 2 Empuraan faces competition from Salman Khan’s Sikandar in the Hindi-regions in India. However, given the different kinds of audiences that the films cater to, there is very little chance that they would affect each other’s collections.
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