By the numbers
- Films: 159 since 1975; 9 in the last ten years (cameos and guest appearances not counted)
- Recent films with figures: 11 of 11 since 2014
- Hits: 3 (2 blockbusters), average: 5, flops: 3 – a hit rate of 27%
- Average return: 1.57x budget; best: Kabali 3.20x; weakest: Kochadaiiyaan 0.24x
- Biggest hit: 2.0 (2018), ₹700 cr
- Trend: last five films 1.59x on average, the five before 1.80x (down)
- Born: 1950-12-12
- Awards on Wikidata: 5
| Year | Film | Budget | Box office | Return | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Coolie | ₹350 cr | ₹514 cr | 1.47x | Average |
| 2024 | Vettaiyan | ₹300 cr | ₹250 cr | 0.83x | Flop |
| 2023 | Jailer | ₹200 cr | ₹605 cr | 3.02x | Blockbuster |
| 2021 | Annaatthe | ₹180 cr | ₹240 cr | 1.33x | Average |
| 2020 | Darbar | ₹190 cr | ₹250 cr | 1.32x | Average |
| 2019 | Petta | ₹160 cr | ₹220 cr | 1.38x | Average |
| 2018 | 2.0 | ₹400 cr | ₹700 cr | 1.75x | Hit |
| 2018 | Kaala | ₹140 cr | ₹160 cr | 1.14x | Flop |
| 2016 | Kabali | ₹100 cr | ₹320 cr | 3.20x | Blockbuster |
| 2014 | Lingaa | ₹100 cr | ₹154 cr | 1.54x | Average |
| 2014 | Kochadaiiyaan | ₹125 cr | ₹30 cr | 0.24x | Flop |
What the numbers say
Rajinikanth’s filmography is vast—159 films from 1975 to 2025—but the scorecard above is built on a narrower set: 11 films with budget and gross figures. Across those, the page records 3 hits, 2 of them blockbusters, against 5 average verdicts and 3 flops. That works out to a 27% hit rate and a 1.57 average multiple. The total gross of these films is ₹3,442.5 crore, but the average multiple reveals that the scale is doing more work than the profitability. The numbers show a star who can produce huge grosses, yet often does it on budgets that leave less room than the headlines suggest.
The hits and the misses
The biggest hit by gross in the table above is 2.0 (2018), which took a ₹400 crore budget to ₹699.89 crore in gross for a 1.75 multiple and a Hit verdict. The strongest return, though, is Kabali (2016): a ₹100 crore budget grew to ₹320 crore, a 3.2 multiple and the best verdict in this set, Blockbuster. Jailer is the other Blockbuster, with a ₹200 crore budget and ₹605 crore gross for a 3.02 multiple. The weakest return is Kochadaiiyaan (2014). Its ₹125 crore budget returned only ₹30 crore in gross, a 0.24 multiple and a Flop—the most expensive failure by multiple in the set. Vettaiyan is the other stark miss among recent films: ₹300 crore budget, ₹250 crore gross, 0.83 multiple.
The trend
The recent five average multiple is 1.59, compared with 1.8 for the five before. That is the core drift: later films are not converting the same way. Jailer’s 3.02 sits well above the 1.57 average and props up the recent five; around it, Darbar (1.32), Annaatthe (1.33), Vettaiyan (0.83), and Coolie (1.47) all land below the dataset average. In the five before, Kabali’s 3.2 did similar heavy lifting, but the supporting line was healthier. The recent stretch still generates volume—Jailer at ₹605 crore and Coolie at ₹514 crore—but the multiple has narrowed, especially as budgets have moved from ₹200 crore for Jailer to ₹300 crore for Vettaiyan and ₹350 crore for Coolie.
What it means for the next film and the industry
For Rajinikanth’s next release, the math is now explicit: the draw is real, but the margin is not automatic. Coolie’s ₹514 crore gross shows the audience is still there, yet a 1.47 multiple on a ₹350 crore budget is an Average after costs. To justify the late-career scale, the next project needs either a Kabali-style return—₹100 crore budget to ₹320 crore—or a Jailer-style combination of ₹200 crore budget and ₹605 crore gross, or the economics tighten. For the industry, this is a reminder that star power and profitability are different columns. A ₹699.89 crore gross on 2.0 looks spectacular and still earns only a 1.75 multiple because the budget was ₹400 crore. The films that have worked best on return, Kabali and Jailer, were not the most expensive films in the table. That is the strategic reading: the safest Rajinikanth bet is scale with a ceiling, not scale at any cost.
Figures: Rajinikanth filmography on Wikipedia and each film’s page, read on 26 September 2026.
