Toxic: A Fairytale for Grown-Ups was supposed to be Yash ’s grand comeback to the big screen. The Geetu Mohandas film saw the ‘Rocking Star’ of Kannada cinema return to the silver screen for the first time in four years, following the KGF films. Made on a massive budget with a huge star cast and a grand scale, the film had everything going for it. Pre-release controversy and buzz only heightened the excitement around it. In the end, Toxic had a record-breaking start at the box office, but one that lasted just a single day. After that, it was a relentless downward slide. Now, as the film nears the end of its run in theatres, we analyse whether it has broken even at the box office.
These may be impressive numbers for a small or mid-budget film, but for a film of Toxic’s scale, these are disastrous figures. As of September 10, Toxic has earned ₹ 247 crore net in India and $4.5 million overseas. Its worldwide gross stands at ₹ 339 crore. As per trade estimates, its global net earnings are around ₹ 270 crore. The exact budget of Toxic was never released, with reports citing figures ranging from ₹ 500 crore to ₹ 1,000 crore. Even with the most conservative estimate, Toxic is around ₹ 230 crore short of its landing cost in net box office earnings.
Toxic began on a massive note, earning ₹ 101 crore net on its first day in India, and reaching ₹ 145 crore gross worldwide. This was one of the biggest openings in Kannada cinema history and the second-biggest opening for an Indian film in 2026, behind only Dhurandhar: The Revenge. But the negative reviews and early reactions led to a bad word of mouth for the Yash-starrer, and the film crashed to just ₹ 37 crore net the following day. By day 6, its first Monday, Toxic was earning in single digits, less than ₹ 10 crore per day. By its 15th day (September 9) in theatres, Toxic had reduced to earning just ₹ 60 lakh from across India. Its worldwide gross on the day was also less than ₹ 1 crore, a massive drop for the film, which had been touching ₹ 150 crore a day just a fortnight earlier. This is the biggest shortfall for a major Indian film, even surpassing the ₹ 220 crore loss Prabhas’ Adipurush had faced in 2024. The Om Raut film had managed around ₹ 330 crore net on a ₹ 550 crore budget. The film has been released in theatres on August 26.
As the box office collections of the devotional film Hanuman Ansh picked up the following weekend, Toxic began to lose shows. The release of Mirzapur The Movie did it no favours either. That makes Toxic, on paper, a bigger flop than even Adipurush, one of the most derided Indian films of recent times. Toxic, directed by Geetu Mohandas , also stars Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth, and Tara Sutaria in the lead roles. Toxic has been in the news for its steamy, intimate scenes and sequences that appear to show women in a not-so-favourable light through imagery and dialogue. The film was cleared by the CBFC with no cuts and an A-rating.
