Gautamiputra Satakarni, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Shriya Saran
Gautamiputra SatakarniTwitter

Director Krish's Gautamiputra Satakarni (Gautami Putra Satakarni/GPSK) has got brilliant opening and made superb collection at the US box office in the premiere shows on Wednesday. It has turned biggest opener for Balakrishna in the country.

Gautamiputra Satakarni is the 100th movie of Balakrishna and is an epic historical movie about a Satavahana ruler. These two aspects created huge hype for the movie and amidst lot of competition, 9 PM Entertainments has bagged its US distribution rights in association with Red Heart Movies for a whopping price of Rs 4 crore. The distributors made grand arrangements for its release in bid to cash in on Balayya mania.

Gautamiputra Satakarni has released in over 140 screens across the US on January 12 and it is the biggest release for Balakrishna. The movie was premiered in over 110 screens on Wednesday night and got good response in the country. The boss of 9 PM Entertainments tweeted: "#GautamiPutraSatakarni premiers started on time everywhere.#balayya entrance extraordinary.@DirKrish direction skills are fantastic."

With the preview shows completed, the distributors are yet to reveal the final numbers. But as per early estimates, Gautamiputra Satakarni has collected $363,000 from 106 screens at the US box office in the premiere shows. Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted: "#GautamiPutraSatakarni collects $363K from 117 locatIions though premieres in USA. Biggest for NBK and Krish "

Balayya's last Sankranti release, Dictator, collected over $45,000 at the US box office and it was the biggest opener for the actor in the country. Director Krish' last venture, Kanche, collected $53,057 at the US box office in its premiere shows. However, Gautamiputra Satakarni earned more in its advance booking than the total collection of the both films. It has become biggest opener for both the actor and director.

Gautamiputra Satakarni has also entered the list of top 10 highest grossing Telugu movies at the US box office in the premiere shows. Here is the list of top 10 biggest openers in the US:

Rank Movie Collection ($)
 1 Baahubali 1,364,416
 2 Khaidi No 150 1,270,529
 3 Sardar Gabbar Singh 616,054
 4 Janatha Garage 584,255
 5 Brahmotsavam 560,274
 6 Srimanthudu 535,984
 7 Aagadu   523,613
 8 Gautamiputra Satakarani  $363,000
 9 Nannaku Prematho  355,321
 10 Son of Satyamurthy  347,000