 "Padayappa" was a box office success; T. R. Vivek of "Business Today" says that the film was estimated to have earned 440 million worldwide, with a total of 380 million at the domestic box office, and 60 million overseas.According to "The Tribune", it was the highest grossing Tamil film at that point of time before being surpassed by another Rajinikanth film, "Chandramukhi" (2005), although Rediff stated in 2014 that "Padayappa" record was surpassed by "Ghilli" (2004).The film had a theatrical run of 100 days in 86 theatre centres, and was dubbed into Telugu under the title "Narasimha".