The AR Murugadoss-directed social drama is the eighth Rs 200 crore grosser from the southern film industry after Enthiran, I, Baahubali: The Beginning, Kabali, Mersal, Baahubali: The Conclusion and Rangasthalam. Prabhas, Rajinikanth and Vijay are the only two heroes from the south to have two Rs 200 crore global grossers each. Taking into account the opening weekend offshore total of $8.75 million (Rs 63.13 crore) and the first-week domestic gross of Rs 154 crore, Sarkar, with its running global total of Rs 217.13 crore, has comfortably unseated Ram Charan's blockbuster Rangasthalam (Rs 215.7 crore) to emerge as the highest-grossing southern film of 2018.

In fact, Sarkar is currently the seventh highest-grossing Indian film of the year after Padmaavat, Sanju, Race 3, Baaghi 2, Hichki, and Thugs of Hindostan. The Sun Pictures production has also surpassed the lifetime total of Bollywood hits such as Akshay Kumar's Gold, and the Alia Bhatt-starrer Raazi.

Amassing a total of Rs 108 crore from eight days in Tamil Nadu, Sarkar has now become the third highest-grossing film in the state, only behind Baahubali: The Conclusion, and Mersal. Now, Vijay has attained an incredible feat of being the only hero to have starred in two Rs 100 crore grossers (Mersal, Sarkar) in Tamil Nadu. However, the movie still has to rake in an additional total Rs 40 crore to turn out to be a profitable venture for all the stakeholders involved in the state.

With an estimated share of Rs 65 crore from eight days in Tamil Nadu, the film has recovered 81 percent of its investment already in the state. Considering the mixed reviews for the film, the trade is quite taken aback by the numbers churned out by the Vijay-starrer, which is continuing to rake in the moolah at the ticket window.

In Chennai, Sarkar has entered the list of all-time top-grossing movies in just eight days with a total of Rs 11.61 crore. Yesterday, the film supplanted Rajinikanth's Kaala to emerge as the fourth highest earner in Chennai city after Baahubali 2, Mersal, and Kabali. Now, Rajinikanth (Enthiran, Kabali, Kaala) and Vijay (Theri, Mersal, Sarkar) are the only heroes from Tamil to score three Rs 11+ crore grossers in Chennai, one of the most significant distribution territories in Tamil Nadu which is also home to the state's majority of consistently-growing multiplex chains. While Kaala and Baahubali 2 took ten days and eleven days respectively to race past the Rs 10 crore mark, Sarkar crossed the milestone in just six days.

The surprise figures for Sarkar surfaced from the Telugu states, which has traditionally been one of the weakest markets for Vijay. However, he has turned the table this time with a peachy total of Rs 16.3 crore from six days with a distributor share of nearly Rs 7.95 crore. The film has already entered the profit zone for distributors in the Telugu states and is a much-needed boost for the actor in the Tollywood market, where his contemporaries Vishal, Karthi and Suriya have demonstrated more box-office prowess than him.

Kerala, where Vijay commands the most loyal and dedicated fan following, has registered poor numbers for the film despite a record-breaking opening day collection of Rs 6.6 crore, which dethroned Baahubali: The Conclusion's launch in the state. The movie, which has pulled in a gross of Rs 13 crore from Kerala so far, has to earn a minimum lifetime total of Rs 20 crore to achieve the break-even point for distributors. Now, the target in Kerala looks unachievable with dwindling footfalls.

In overseas, Sarkar has garnered a total of $8.75 million (Rs 63.13 crore) from its opening weekend, which is nearly 75% of Mersal's lifetime overseas gross of $11.9 million. It's the second best weekend performance for a Tamil film in offshore markets, only behind Rajinikanth's Kabali. While the UAE-GCC belt has contributed the lion's share of $2.3 million (Rs 16.58 crore), USA has scored a decent gross of $937,000 (Rs 6.75 crore). Sarkar has become the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2018 stateside after Rajinikanth's Kaala, which is likely to hold its record for now.

In France, which is Vijay's box-office citadel, Sarkar has already entered into the all-time top five grossers and become the third film of Thalapathy to earn 20K+ admissions in the European nation. In Malaysia, the film took home earnings of $1,793,542 (Rs 13.03 crore) from the six-day opening weekend, making it the best launch for any Tamil movie ever in the country.

The next few days are going to be really crucial for the film as new releases such as Jyotika's Kaatrin Mozhi, and Vijay Antony's Thimiru Pudichavan are set to hit theaters on 16 November.