4 Oct – The weekend box office belonged to revered actor Rajnikanth as his Tamil blockbuster "Endhiran" (variants: "Enthiran", "Robot", "Robo") grossed in excess of RM3 million across more than 100 Malaysian screens for the weekend just gone, while Facebook movie "The Social Network" topped the U.S. charts with an estimated gross of US$ 23 million. The latter opens in Malaysia this 11 November.

A Rajnikanth lookalike at the TGV CapSquare premiere of "Endhiran" last week, which also VIPs like David Teo and Yusof Haslam in attendance

Sources within Lotus Five Star AV have confirmed that they are expecting a 100-day run and a total gross of RM20 million if Rajnikanth fans throw their support behind the Kollywood giant.

Many cinemagoers have been bombarding the cinema chains on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter with pre-sales enquiries prior to the opening day. Fortunately, there was no repeat of the "Sivaji" fiasco two years ago where problems with the digital download of the movie resulted in delayed or cancelled shows and a horde of angry patrons, which in turn resulted in public mayhem involving police intervention.

Cinema showtimes for "Endhiran" were also the most viewed on Cinema Online's website, with more than 50,000 unique page views by the opening day. Leading chain GSC also reported a spectacular spike in their Facebook activity notification, mostly attributed to anxious fans who were waiting for reservations to open for the monster title.

Two Rajnikanth fans Maheshan, 24, and Hariharan, 19, made their way from Rawang to TGV CapSquare when they couldn't get tickets to Pawagam Sun in Rawang on the opening day

Lotus Five Star State PJ registered sold out halls for almost every show over the weekend for "Endhiran". No untoward incidents were reported.

Patrons came to GSC MidValley as early as 9am before the cinema opened on a Saturday morning to try for better tickets

Local rapper Yogi B came with singer Reshmonu and was led up onstage to comment on the Rajnikanth movie

Filmmakers Farid Kamil & Pierre Andre came to watch "Endhiran"

"Endhiran" was the generally the fastest selling movie across all cinemas playing it

At the TGV CapSquare premiere of "Endhiran" last Thursday night, a host of local filmmakers showed up to witness the undeniable box office phenomenon, including David Teo, Yusof Haslam, Afdlin Shauki, Farid Kamil and Pierre Andre. The proceedings were officiated by Chief Minister of Perlis Datuk Seri Md Isa Sabu and also Lotus Five Star strongmen Dato' Doraisingam and Garuna Murthee.

On a related matter, industry sources confirm that six cinemas under the banner of Big Cinemas Lotus Five Star will revert to their original Lotus Five Star management from 7 October onwards, namely Butterworth, Tasik Skudai, Broadway, Klang, Selayang and Bukit Jambul.

In other news, U.S. No.1 box office hit "The Town" starring Ben Affleck which was due to open in Malaysia this week has been pushed by Warner Bros. Malaysia to December while recently "Scott Pilgrim vs The World" has been recently taken off the Malaysian and Singaporean release schedule.

Other lesser releases that debuted last weekend in Malaysia include "Charlie St Cloud", "Detective Dee", "Tiran Mati Di Ranjang", "Blood Ties", "Alpha And Omega" and a limited release independent movie at GSC International Screens called "The Joshua Tapes".

The Hindi version of "Endhiran", titled "Robo", is currently playing at TGV CapSquare only.