Padi Padi Leche Manasu (PPLM) and Antariksham (Anthariksham) made an average collection at the worldwide box office in two days, but Sharwanand's film has an edge over Varun Tej's movie.
Padi Padi Leche Manasu and Antariksham had a decent hype and promotion before their release. But The Varun Tej starrer was a notch bigger than the Sharwanand starrer in terms of star power, genre, curiosity generated by promos, screen count and advance ticket booking. Hence, it was predicted that Sankalp's film would get a bigger opening than the other and lead the race at the box office.
But other new releases like Zero and KGF: Chapter 1 had made some people feel sceptic about the prospects of Padi Padi Leche Manasu and Antariksham at the ticket counters. The distributors of both the movies reportedly struggled to get them enough number of cinema halls and they registered a good amount of advance booking for their opening day.
The Varun Tej starrer opened to decent response with some shows registering 100 per cent occupancy on Friday. Antariksham collected Rs 4.20 crore gross at the worldwide box office on the first day. It became the lowest opener for the actor as it failed to beat the records of Kanche (Rs 4.25 crore gross), Mister (Rs 5.25 crore gross), Fidaa (Rs 8.90 crore gross) and Tholi Prema (Rs 9.6 crore gross).
The Sankalp Reddy-directed space movie received a positive response from most of the viewers and critics and the word of mouth helped it remain strong at the ticket counters. Antariksham is estimated to have collected Rs 3.25 crore gross at the worldwide box office on Saturday, taking its two day total to Rs 7.45 crore gross. Its earnings look average before that of Varun Tej's previous outings.
On the other hand, the Sharwanand and Sai Pallavi starrer also debuted with good response and many screens recorded 100 per cent footfalls on Friday. Padi Padi Leche Manasu collected Rs 5.10 crore gross at the worldwide box office on the first day. But it failed to beat the records of Sharwa's previous biggest openers Shatamanam Bhavati (Rs 6.50 crore gross) and Mahanubhavudu (Rs 7 crore gross).
The Hanu Raghavapudi-directed romance drama garnered mixed talk from the viewers and the word of mouth took a toll on its business to some extent on Saturday. Padi Padi Leche Manasu collected Rs 3 crore gross at the worldwide box office on the second day, taking its total to Rs 8.10 crore gross. The movie has to go a long way in recovering the distributors' investments.