Thug Life box office collection day 5: Mani Ratnam's gangster drama features Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan in key roles. (Screenshot: YouTube/SaregamaTamil)Thug Life box office collection day 5: Notwithstanding the sky-high expectations surrounding its release, particularly since it marked the long-awaited reunion of director Mani Ratnam and actor Kamal Haasan nearly four decades after Nayakan (1987), the gangster drama Thug Life is tanking at the box office, owing to poor responses from all quarters. On its first Monday in theatres, the film managed to earn just about a quarter of the critically panned Housefull 5, which was released on the same weekend.On Monday, Thug Life recorded a meagre India nett collection of Rs 3.62 crore, bringing its overall domestic earnings to Rs 40.52 crore, according to early estimates by industry tracker Sacnilk. While the Tamil version contributed Rs 3.25 crore, the Telugu and Hindi versions added just Rs 29 lakh and Rs 8 lakh, respectively. In stark contrast, director Tarun Mansukhani’s Housefull 5, starring Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez and Sanjay Dutt, among others, earned Rs 13.76 crore the same day, despite overwhelmingly negative reviews. Thug Life’s total worldwide gross now stands at Rs 75 crore.Also Read | Naseeruddin Shah yelled at me after people applauded my back-to-back performances, says Amruta Subhash: ‘He said I would rather see you fail than…’On Monday, Thug Life saw an overall occupancy of just 18.05 per cent in the Tamil market. While the morning shows began with 14.11 per cent, the rate fluctuated throughout the day with afternoon, evening and night screenings recording 19.53 per cent, 17.99 per cent and 20.57 per cent occupancy, respectively.According to the latest figures, Thug Life is faring extremely poorly compared to Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam’s recent films. While Vikram, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, earned Rs 15.8 crore domestically on its first Monday after opening at Rs 32.05 crore, Kamal and Shankar’s colossal misfire Indian 2, which debuted at Rs 25.6 crore, managed Rs 3 crore on its first Monday. Considering this, Thug Life is showing all signs of becoming as big a box office disaster as Indian 2 was.Watch Thug Life trailer here:In the case of recent Mani Ratnam films, while Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 (2022) registered a first Monday nett collection of Rs 19.05 crore after opening at Rs 34 crore, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 2 (2023) had earned Rs 23.25 crore on its first Monday, following a debut of Rs 24 crore.In fact, Thug Life’s first Monday collection trails significantly behind Adhik Ravichandran’s Ajith Kumar-starrer Good Bad Ugly (Rs 15 crore) and Ashwath Marimuthu’s Pradeep Ranganathan-led Dragon (Rs 5.8 crore), which currently stand as the highest-grossing Tamil films of 2025, with global grosses of Rs 246.15 crore and Rs 150.52 crore, respectively.Thug Life OTT release date preponed?Meanwhile, rumours are also rife that Thug Life might premiere on OTT much earlier than the originally planned date. Although Kamal Haasan had stated prior to release that the film would maintain an eight-week window between theatrical and streaming debuts, reports now indicate it may arrive on OTT after just four weeks, since the movie is underperforming. According to M9 News, trade experts believe that the OTT release of the movie could be preponed, with the film’s official streaming partner Netflix likely to stream the film sooner than expected.Story continues below this adAlso starring Silambarasan TR, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Abhirami in key roles, Thug Life features music by Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman, cinematography by Ravi K Chandran and editing by A Sreekar Prasad. The film was jointly bankrolled by Raaj Kamal Films International and Madras Talkies.Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd