Soori's Mandaadi is closing in on the Rs 70 crore mark worldwide, five days after clashing with Karthi's Sardar 2 in Tamil theatres, and coming out well ahead.

Trade tracking pegs the film's five-day domestic gross at around Rs 53.6 crore, with Tamil Nadu alone contributing Rs 38.25 crore, according to Telugu Filmibeat. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana added Rs 8.92 crore, Karnataka chipped in Rs 4.55 crore and Kerala another Rs 1.38 crore. Add the overseas number, Rs 8.75 crore, a figure both Telugu Filmibeat and Koimoi arrive at independently, and the worldwide gross lands somewhere between Rs 62.38 crore and Rs 62.85 crore depending on whose math you use.

The production house isn't using either figure. Tamil Filmibeat reported that the makers put out an official five-day collection poster claiming Rs 65 crore worldwide, higher than the roughly Rs 58 crore that trade trackers had been circulating a day earlier. Whichever number holds up, Mandaadi has comfortably cleared its Rs 27 crore Telugu-states break-even target and its wider Rs 55 crore budget, per Telugu Filmibeat.

The Monday test is usually where inflated openings come undone. Mandaadi didn't blink. Koimoi reported the film earned Rs 11.25 crore net on its first Monday, a public holiday for Ganesh Chaturthi in parts of the country, which works out to 68% growth over its opening Friday number. The film has also added close to 1,000 screens since release, per Koimoi.

Day six brought the real test. Playing 2,258 shows across 418 cities on Tuesday, September 15, the film opened to 18.6% occupancy and an early gross of around Rs 2.22 crore, per Telugu Filmibeat. Trade estimates put the full day-six collection between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore, enough to push the worldwide total to the doorstep of Rs 70 crore.

There's a milestone angle too. Telugu Filmibeat reported that Mandaadi's day five collection beat Jana Nayagan's and placed the film in the top 15 all-time day-five grossers in Kollywood. Trade tracking also has it as the number one film at the ticket window right now, ahead of Sardar 2, which Koimoi noted has been sliding through the week on the back of weak reviews.

Composer GV Prakash Kumar reacted to the makers' collection poster with a one-word comment, "Blast," according to Tamil Filmibeat, while also remarking that his own film Immortal deserved similar numbers and blaming its comparatively modest Rs 7 crore finish on weak promotion.

If the day six estimates hold, Soori will be looking at a spot in what's turning into a crowded year for Kollywood's Rs 100 crore club, a list that already includes Sivakarthikeyan's Parasakthi, Suriya's Karuppu, Vishwanath And Sons and Vijay's Jana Nayagan. Whether Mandaadi gets there depends on how it holds through its first full week, starting with Wednesday's non-holiday numbers.