The relentless box office run of Malayalam cinema’s ultimate protector, Georgekutty, continues to hold firm despite normal weekday attrition. Drishyam 3, starring the legendary Mohanlal, has successfully navigated its first crucial working Tuesday, recording a steady theatrical performance across the country.
The highly anticipated investigative thriller raked in an estimated net collection of ₹6.45 crore in India on Day 6 (May 26) across a massive tracking grid of 4,668 shows nationwide.
According to box office tracking portal Sacnilk, Tuesday’s figures reflect a standard 16.2% slide from its Day 5 (Monday) earnings of ₹7.70 crore. This minor contraction brings the film’s total domestic net accumulation to a healthy ₹68.60 crore within less than a week of its theatrical release. Concurrently, the domestic gross revenue has comfortably coasted to ₹79.62 crore, signaling robust regional traction despite facing a split screen count with concurrent releases.
The Global Powerhouse: While domestic numbers show a routine weekday cool-off, the overseas market is telling a far more aggressive story. On Day 6 alone, Drishyam 3 pulled in an international gross of ₹6.00 crore. This pushes the film’s total overseas gross to an astronomical ₹90.70 crore, steering its cumulative worldwide gross to a staggering ₹170.32 crore against its reported ₹100 crore production budget.
Regional Footprint: Malayalam Territory Dominates the Split
Released on an unconventional Thursday (May 21) to capture an extended opening window, the third installment of the iconic franchise capitalized heavily on its legacy value over the weekend. The film opened with a roaring ₹15.85 crore on Thursday, followed by a minor Friday slide to ₹11.05 crore, before ballooning back to life over the weekend with ₹13.70 crore on Saturday and ₹13.85 crore on Sunday.
A granular breakdown of the language performance shows that the core Malayalam market remains the primary structural engine behind the movie’s commercial health, yielding a dominant ₹59.05 crore. The dubbed markets have also chipped in with decent numbers, led by Telugu at ₹5.85 crore, Tamil at ₹2.60 crore, and Kannada contributing ₹1.10 crore to the collective tally.
The Road to Clean Hit Status and Critical Consensus
Mounted on an ambitious promotional budget of roughly ₹100 crore, Drishyam 3 requires strong theatrical hold-over legs rather than a front-loaded surge to emerge as a massive commercial success for the producers. Because the film relies heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations rather than typical mass-action set pieces, trade analysts believe the upcoming second weekend will dictate whether the movie can comfortably scale the ₹250 crore worldwide barrier.
The narrative continuation has generated a polarized response from film critics, though general fan reception remains intensely enthusiastic. While some argue the pacing feels deliberately drawn out in the middle act, a review by The Free Press Journal awarded the project 3.5 stars, highlighting its emotional depth. The publication noted: “Drishyam 3 may not surpass the ingenious precision of its predecessor, but it understands the tragic burden of living inside one’s own alibi. The film succeeds because it recognises that secrets do not disappear with time. They simply become family traditions.”