The Lyca Productions film, directed by Tamil Nadu CM Dalapathi Vijay's son, is struggling to clear even half its Rs 30 crore budget over its opening weekend.
Three days in, the numbers on Sigma are not matching the noise around its director.
The film, which marks the directorial debut of Jason Sanjay, son of Tamil Nadu chief minister Dalapathi Vijay, opened on October 2, timed to Gandhi Jayanti. Sundeep Kishan and Faria Abdullah lead the cast, and Lyca Productions, under AR Subaskaran, bankrolled the project at a reported Rs 30 crore. Trade watchers had pegged the breakeven mark at a gross of Rs 15 crore. Three days later, that target still looks some distance away.
According to figures tracked by Sacnilk and reported by Telugu Filmibeat, Sigma opened to Rs 2.35 crore net in India on day one and added Rs 1.50 crore on day two, taking the two-day net to Rs 3.85 crore and the gross to Rs 4.40 crore. Split by language, the Tamil version brought in Rs 2.45 crore and the Telugu version Rs 1.40 crore over those two days. State-wise, Tamil Nadu led with Rs 2.20 crore, followed by the Telugu states at Rs 1.58 crore, Karnataka at Rs 38 lakh, Kerala at Rs 19 lakh and the rest of India scraping together just Rs 5 lakh.
Sunday's advance booking offered little comfort. Across 1,841 shows nationwide, Sigma sold around 1.08 lakh tickets for an advance of Rs 1.26 crore. By 3.30 pm on day three, 949 shows had run with occupancy at 23.2 percent, pushing the day's collection to roughly Rs 72 lakh at that point, with evening and night shows expected to push the number higher.
Trade estimates now put day three at around Rs 4 crore worldwide, split roughly Rs 2 crore from Tamil Nadu and Rs 1 crore from the Telugu states. That would take Sigma's three-day worldwide total to somewhere near Rs 9 crore, well short of the Rs 15 crore breakeven line with barely a third of the budget recovered.
The competition hasn't helped. In the Telugu states, smaller releases like The Paradise, Tella Kagitham and Don't Trouble The Trouble have chipped away at screen share. In Tamil Nadu, where Vijay commands a loyal base that could have worked in his son's favour, Vijay Sethupathi's Baththa has instead dominated footfalls, leaving Sigma scrapping for the rest.
The real test starts now. Weekday collections from Monday onward, with office-goers back and multiplexes thinning out even for big openers, tend to be brutal on films that haven't built word of mouth over the weekend. And next week brings a fresh round of major releases that will fight Sigma for screens all over again. Whether Jason Sanjay's first outing behind the camera can hold its ground through that stretch, or fade quietly before it, should be clear within days.
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