Starring "Thalapathy" Vijay, the film is inspired by David Cronenberg's 'A History of Violence'.
After delivering one of the strongest box office performances by any Indian movie this year, the action-thriller Leo is all set to debut on streaming. Netflix announced on Monday that Leo will premiere on the service on November 24 in India, and on November 28 globally. Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and starring “Thalapathy” Vijay, the film is a part of the ever-expanding shared universe of action movies titled the "Lokesh Cinematic Universe." The film tells the story of a mild-mannered café owner whose past catches up with him and is inspired by David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.
Released in theaters a month ago, Leo delivered an incredible performance at the box office, both in its home country and worldwide. It ended its global run with just under $75 million, of which $48 million came from India. Through the course of its run, Leo broke numerous box office records, especially for Tamil-language cinema. It remains the second-biggest Tamil movie of all time, the biggest of 2023, and the highest-grossing film in the state of Tamil Nadu. Most notably in the global context, it finished its first weekend of release as the number one film in the world, outperforming Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Leo is the fourth-biggest overall Indian film of the year, behind Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Pathaan ($138 million worldwide and $130 million worldwide, respectively), and the period action film Gadar 2 ($83 million worldwide), and just ahead of fellow Tamil-language hit Jailer, which stars perhaps the biggest superstar in Tamil cinema history, Rajinikanth. Leo was produced on a reported budget of $30 million, which is on the higher side of the spectrum, relatively speaking, but not as high as budgets for major Indian productions can often get. Last year’s blockbuster RRR, for instance, cost twice as much, and the upcoming Kalki 2898 AD is set to cost $75 million.
Top Indian Movies of 2023
Global Box Office
Jawan
$138 million
Pathaan
$130 million
Gadar 2
$83 million
Leo
$74 million
Jailer
$73 million
India has several local language film industries that operate independently of each other. While “Bollywood” is perhaps the most well-known of the lot, it is often misused as an umbrella term for all Indian movies. Actually, Bollywood refers only to the Hindi-language industry, based in the city of Mumbai. Leo is a Tamil-language film, aimed almost exclusively at audiences that speak the language in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and the diaspora population across the world. RRR, on the other hand, is a Telugu-language film that proved to be a crossover hit with audiences across the globe, although most people outside India watched a dubbed Hindi version on Netflix.
Leo received mostly positive reviews and currently sits at a "fresh" 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Lokesh Cinematic Universe began with 2019’s Kaithi, a chase thriller in which a falsely accused man fresh out of jail transports a truckload of cops to safety. It continued with last year’s Vikram, starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role. The franchise will reportedly continue with Kanagaraj’s next film, which is set to star Rajinikanth, setting the stage for what could possibly be the biggest casting coup in Tamil cinema history, with three of the industry’s most popular male stars uniting in one franchise. You can watch a trailer for Leo here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Watch Leo on Netflix


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Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.
He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema. 
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