It possibly made decent money - but definitely not in proportion to the quality / critical acclaim.
One of the reasons could be almost zero repeat audience. (One had to be too much kal nenjan to watch it a second time - like many commented, it's not easy to even give a youtube watch for that scene and not weep / cry / get affected for a long time...the 90's audience didn't have that kind of energy & time to invest in this movie I think...Kamal should have done this during uthirippookkaL days - it would have seen silver jubilee).
ayyA, yArachchum konjam SB'kkum oru cup juice kudungappA :-)