Venkatesh's F2 leads Sankranti box-office with Rs 22 cr worldwide gross; NTR: Kathanayakudu declared a disaster

Tollywood box-office had three major releases for the Sankranti festival including the highly anticipated biopic of NT Rama Rao_, NTR Kathanayakudu _, Ram Charan’s commercial potboiler Vinaya Vidheya Rama , and the Venkatesh, Varun Tej starrer F2 - Fun and Frustration .

Due to proper understanding and healthy competition in Telugu cinema, there was no direct clash between the three releases, like Kollywood where Rajinikanth’s Petta and Ajith’s Viswasam took each other head-on at the ticket counters on 10 January, eating into each other’s opening business numbers. While Nandamuri Balakrishna’s NTR Kathanayakudu released on 9 January, Vinaya Vidheya Rama hit the screens on 11 January followed by F2 on 12 January.

As of now, F2 directed by Anil Ravipudi and produced by Sri Venkateswara Creations has received the best reviews compared to the other two films and is hailed by audiences as a watchable comedy entertainer for the Sankranti festival. Vinaya Vidheya Rama has been ruthlessly trolled by netizens with video clips featuring over-the-top sequences from the film doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook for the past three days. NTR: Kathanayakudu has opened to mixed reviews from both audiences and critics alike.

F2, which also stars Tamannaah Bhatia and Mehreen Pirzada as female leads, has grossed a whopping Rs 22 cr from the two-day opening weekend with a distributor share close to Rs 13 cr. Nearly Rs 9 cr from the opening frame came from the overseas box-office, where the film is doing equally well. The movie is on the verge of hitting the million dollar mark in the USA with a cumulative running total of $926,566 (Rs 6.5 cr).

The worldwide theatrical rights for F2 is estimated to be Rs 32 cr. The success of F2 is essential for Varun Tej who was on a winning spree with Fidaa and Tholi Prema before Antariksham 9000 KMPH, which was billed as Tollywood’s first space film, tanked at the box-office towards the fag end of 2018.

For Ram Charan, who was basking in the mega-blockbuster success of Rangasthalam (which amassed Rs 215.7 Cr worldwide and became the highest-grossing Telugu film of 2018), the box-office numbers of Vinaya Vidheya Rama are not rosy. Despite the extraordinary opening day figures from worldwide theatrical ticket sales, the film faced a massive drop on Saturday and Sunday and has collapsed at the ticket window. The three-day opening weekend gross of the film is pegged at Rs 56 cr with a distributor share of Rs 39.5 cr.

The worldwide theatrical rights for the film were valued at Rs 90 c r, and the film is yet to recover more than 55% of the investment for stakeholders. Directed by Boyapati Srinu and produced by DVV Danayya, Vinaya Vidheya Rama has been at the receiving end of meme-makers who have been savaging the film’s gravity-defying scenes on the internet.

While Ram Charan’s last outing Rangasthalam earned a humongous lifetime total of $3.5 million stateside and became the top-grossing non_-Baahubali_ film in Tollywood, Vinaya Vidheya Rama, which stars Kiara Advani as the lead heroine, has crashed at the USA with just $247K from the three-day opening weekend. Andhra Pradesh has contributed the lion’s share of the film’s gross with close to Rs 22.8 cr.

NTR: Kathanayakudu helmed by director Krish is also struggling to rake in the moolah at the box-office. The five-day opening weekend gross of the film is estimated at Rs 29 Cr with a disappointing distributor share of Rs 15.6 cr. The worldwide theatrical rights of the film, which has an all-star cast of actors such as Vidya Balan, Rana Daggubati, Manjima Mohan, Poonam Bajwa, and Sumanth to name a few, were valued at Rs 70 cr. The movie, which also features special cameo appearances from Hansika Motwani, Rakul Preet, Nithya Menen, Shriya Saran, and Shalini Pandey, has just recovered 15.5% of the investment and is declared as a colossal disaster at the box-office.