Vijay and Atlee Kumar’s Mersal releases on Wedneday, and it isn’t just the Ilayathalapathy who is eagerly hoping for a blockbuster, but all of Kollywood.

Mersal is the first big budget movie to release in Tamil Nadu after the new ticket rates kicked in.  Theatres all over the state saw record sales as soon as pre-booking counters opened, giving hope that people will go to theatres in spite of the higher rates.

Mersal will release in more than 3,500 screens all over the world, the colossal number is expected to rake in big money over the weekend itself.

"We are screening about five to six shows every day and for the next two days, all the shows are sold out. Tickets are getting booked from the third day too. The tickets are being sold at the nominal price set by the government. We are expecting very good sales for Mersal this long weekend,” Nikilesh Surya, owner of Rohini theatres told TNM.

Most theatres in Tamil Nadu are running 5 to 8 shows of the movie every day from Thursday. Some theatres have shows as early as 1.30 am.

The film that also stars  Samantha, Nithya Menon and Kajal Aggarwal, Mersal is said to be Vijay’s costliest film made at a whopping budget of Rs 130 crore. According to analyst and author Sreedhar Pillai, it is rumoured to have been marketed by the producers for a whopping ₹125 to 130 crore including all rights.

G Dhananjayan, industry tracker and producer has said that the movie has the potential of collecting Rs 100 crores in the opening weekend itself.

Forbes reports that with Mersal releasing in 800 screens in Malaysia, Vijay is looking at setting a new personal record as his movie Kaththi in 2014 had grossed $1.83 million (Rs. 12 crore) in the country.

Rajinikanth however holds the all-time Tamil movie record with Kabali released in 2016 making $3.95 million (Rs. 25.8 crore) in Malaysia alone.