The year 2025 ends today, and the Telugu film industry steps into 2026 with high expectations around the Sankranthi release season.
As is customary, discussions have intensified around USA premiere advance bookings, which often serve as an early indicator of box office potential.
Two major films in focus are The Raja Saab, scheduled for release on January 8 premiers, and Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, slated for January 11 premieres.
The Raja Saab has clocked USD 280,619 from 342 locations, spanning 1,021 shows and selling 9,899 tickets. Total North America premiere advances stand at around USD 290,000.
While this is higher in absolute terms, it is still considered underwhelming given that the film stars Prabhas.
For comparison, his earlier films Kalki 2898 AD and Salaar registered premiere bookings of approximately USD 3.9 million and USD 2.5 million respectively.
Against that backdrop, the current numbers for The Raja Saab raise genuine concern about whether it can even touch the USD 1 million mark.
It all depends on the last one week bookings to estimate the overall box office potential.
As of now, Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu has collected USD 77,464 from 119 locations across 423 shows, selling 3,684 tickets.
The daily booking trend is close to USD 10,000, with expectations of better traction after New Year celebrations. With twelve days left for premieres, the performance remains modest but not discouraging.
Looking at historical Sankranthi data of Chiranjeevi's films, Waltair Veerayya earned around USD 680,000 from premieres, Khaidi No. 150 crossed USD 1.29 million, and Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy collected about USD 858,000.
The coming week will be crucial. Ongoing strong collections of Dhurandhar may also be impacting advance bookings. Whether momentum builds or caution prevails remains to be seen.
