Telugu film "Soggade Chinni Nayana" (SCN) has surpassed the mark of $500,000 at the US box office in its first weekend and it has become the second highest grosser for Akkineni Nagarjuna after "Manam".
Blue Sky has bagged the overseas theatrical rights of "Soggade Chinni Nayana" for a fancy price of Rs 65 lakh. The distribution house released the movie in 80 screens across North America on Friday. It held paid preview show in several centres and the movie received decent response from the audience.
"Soggade Chinni Nayana" witnessed decent amount of footfalls in all the theatres across the country on Friday. The movie showed a big leap in its numbers on Saturday and Sunday. The Nagarjuna, Lavanya and Ramya Krishna starrer has collected $535,183 (R 3.62 crore) at the US box office in the first weekend.
India's leading film trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, "Telugu film #SoggadeChinniNayana crosses half-million mark in USA in its opening weekend. Recorded STRONG biz on Sat and Sun... contd." He added, "#SoggadeChinniNayana - USA: Thu pre $ 50,523, Fri $ 108,005, Sat $ 198,364, Sun $ 178,291. Total: $ 535,183 [? 3.62 cr]. @RentrakIndia"
Its per-screen average stands at $6,689. "Soggade Chinni Nayana" has beaten two other Sankranti releases like "Dictator" and "Express Raja", which hit the screens one day before its release. While "Nannaku Prematho" topped the US business charts for the Telugu movies, the Kalyan Krishna-directed family entertainer has landed in the second place.
"Manam" has become the highest grosser for Nagarjuna with its $1,412,302 total collection at the US box office. Nag's other movies have struggled to collect more than Rs 2.5 crore in their lifetime. His latest outing "Soggade Chinni Nayana" has smashed all his records except "Manam". It needs to be seen whether the film will be able to break the record of "Manam" or not.
