Nandamuri Balakrishna's NTR: Mahanayakudu has started with a poor response at the US box office in the premiere shows and failed to beat the collection record of NTR: Kathanayakudu.
NTR: Mahanayakudu is the second part of the biopic of late actor-turned-politician NT Rama Rao. With NTR: Kathanayakudu, the first part of the biographical movie, bombing at the box office, the makers and US distributors have pinned their hopes on this movie, which was expected to start on a grand note in the country.
US Telugu Movie LLC, which has acquired the rights of NTR biopic, booked around 120 screens in the US and it is lesser number than that of NTR: Kathanayakudu, which had been shown on around 200 screens. The distributors, who were successful in delivering content to all the cinema halls, held its premiere shows on 180 screens but the film registered an average advance booking for the previews.
Despite having enough hype and promotion, the Balakrishna and Vidya Balan starrer opened to an average response in the US. As per early trends, NTR: Mahanayakudu has collected $74,460 at the US box office in the premiere shows and this number is likely to go up, when the final figures are released.
The prequel, NTR: Kathanayakudu, opened to a massive response and collected $482,000 at the US box office in the premiere shows. But the word of mouth affected its collection on the following days, making it turn a dud in the country. Now, NTR: Mahanayakudu was expected to beat its opening record and recover the loss for its distributors but it has failed to cross even the benchmark.
Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted, "#NTRMahanayakudu USA hourly premieres grosss ya 7 pm PST on 21 February is $74,460 from 97 locations #NTRKathanayakudu collected $482k through premieres in USA last month!"
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