Can Pushpa 2 recover from its U.S. box office struggle?
Allu Arjun’s highly anticipated film Pushpa 2 created massive expectations among its makers and fans, aiming to break records in North America. The film targeted a lifetime gross of $25 million, intending to surpass Baahubali 2’s $20 million milestone. However, the movie is falling short of its expectations and is struggling to reach even its break-even point of $16 million, revised from $15 million due to distributor passes affecting revenue.
The film’s main challenge is the disappointing performance of its Telugu version. Despite the massive hype as a sequel, the Telugu version has managed to gross only $7 million in North America so far. For comparison, NTR’s Devara, which lacks the sequel advantage or a star director, grossed $5.5 million. The $1.5 million gap between these films emphasizes the underperformance of Pushpa 2’s Telugu version. Ideally, it should have earned double Devara’s revenue, given its scale and expectations.
Pushpa 2’s Telugu version run is almost over!
This has become a hot topic in the trade, as to why such a massive sequel is struggling at the U.S. box office to reach breakeven.
The answer is simple:
Telugu version underperformed. For context, if we compare it with Devara,…
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The Hindi version, on the other hand, has fared decently and has somewhat mitigated the damage. However, the mixed word-of-mouth following the film’s release and its mass-masala genre have also hindered its appeal to North American audiences. The movie’s box office trajectory crashed after the first Monday, further dampening its performance.
Pushpa 2 highlights how critical the Telugu audience is for such massive ventures. Without their strong support, achieving ambitious targets like $25 million becomes nearly impossible. Although the film has performed reasonably well in other regions, the struggle in North America marks it as a disappointing venture for the makers.
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