Director VV Vinayak's "Akhil: The Power of Jua" has done average business at the US box office in its opening weekend, becoming another big Tollywood disaster after "Bruce Lee".
"Akhil: The Power of Jua" has collected $160,645 (Rs 1.06 crore) from 107 screens at the US box office in the five-day-extended first weekend. It has failed to beat the record of recent release "Kanche", which collected $371,381 (Rs 2.41 crore) from 130 screens in its opening weekend.
The Akkineni family has got a decent number of fans in North America, which has become a potential market for Telugu movies in recent years. Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya's recent releases have fared well here. This fan base enabled the makers of "Akhil: The Power of Jua" think of a massive release for the film in the country.
Classic Entertainments acquired the US theatrical rights of Akhil Akkineni's debut movie for a whopping price, said to be the highest for a movie having a member of the Akkineni family as hero. The distribution house released the movie in over 150 cinema halls across North America on 11 November.
The Akhil Akkineni and Sayesha Sehgal starrer was expected to start with a bang at the US box office. The distributors premiered the film in around 80 cinema halls across the country but the movie received a lukewarm response from the audience. The negative word of mouth hit its business on the following days, apart from the impact of "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo".
Tollywood has had several hit movies at the US box office in 2015 but has also churned out a few disasters like Nandamuri Kalyan Ram's "Sher" and Ram Charan's "Bruce Lee: The Fighter". "Akhil: The Power of Jua" is the latest Telugu movie to join the club of flop films.
