Ram and Raashi Khanna's "Shivam" has beaten the Telugu version of Ilayathalapthy Vijay's "Puli", which has done poor collection at the US box office in its opening weekend.
"Shivam" is one of the most-hyped and highly-awaited Telugu movies of 2015. The movie was expected to catapult Ram into stardom as he has done a lot of hard work and promoted it heavily. The huge hype made its US theatrical rights sell to IDream for a whopping price of Rs 50 lakh. The distributors made arrangements for its grand release in over 85 cinema halls in the country.
Being Ram's biggest release, "Shivam" was expected to debut with overwhelming response in the US. But, the movie opened to lukewarm response and received negative reviews from the audience. The word-of-mouth took a toll on in its business in the following days in the country.
"Shivam" has collected $33,813 (Rs 22.05 lakh) from 57 cinema halls at the US box office in the first weekend, according to Bollywood Hungama. Its per-screen average stands at $593. The much-hyped movie has failed to become the biggest opener for Ram Pothineni in the country.
After "Shivam", another disaster comes in the form of "Puli" this weekend. The movie had been promoted on the same scale such as "Baahubali". Many expected the film to make huge amount of business in the US.
The premiere shows of "Puli", which were to be held on Wednesday night, were scrapped due to the financial problems. Its Telugu version debuted with lacklustre response and the bad word-of-mouth took a toll on its collection over the weekend. This version has collected $2,854 (Rs 1.86 lakh) from 16 screens at the US box office in its opening weekend. Its per-screen average stands at $178.
Both "Shivam" and "Puli" have landed in the list of worst performer Tollywood movies at the US box office in 2015. Here is a list of 10 dud Telugu movies of 2015. This list is based on the numbers mentioned in the reports of Bollywood Hungama and the figures may from the actual collection.
| Rank | Movie | Screens | Weekend gross | Per-screen |
| 1 | Andhra Pori | 12 | $145 | $12 |
| 2 | Vinavayya Ramayya | 23 | $1,365 | $59 |
| 3 | Kerintha | 81 | $11,034 | $136 |
| 4 | Puli (Telugu) | 16 | $2,854 | $178 |
| 5 | Krishnamma Kalipindi Iddarini | 15 | $4,984 | $332 |
| 6 | Dongata | 10 | $4,000 | $400 |
| 7 | Mosagallaku Mosagadu | 21 | $9,123 | $434 |
| 8 | Surya Vs Surya | 74 | $36,177 | $488 |
| 9 | Janda Pai Kapiraju | 7 | $3,953 | $564 |
| 10 | Shivam | 57 | $33,813 | $593 |
