Pushpa: The Rise, the Telugu film starring actor Allu Arjun, has entered the 100-crore club. The film, which released in theatres on Friday, grossed Rs 116 crore worldwide in two days, the makers announced on social media on Sunday.
Pushpa is the second Telugu film in recent times to enter the 100-crore club after Nandamuri Balakrishna-starrer Akhanda achieved the feat earlier this month.
Starring Allu Arjun as the titular Pushpa Raj, the Sukumar directorial is set against the backdrop of red sandalwood smuggling. The film produced by Mythri Movie Makers also stars Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil, while Samantha Ruth Prabhu makes a guest appearance in a special song.
Dubbed versions of Pushpa were released simultaneously in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi.
Anupam Reddy, secretary of the Telangana State Film Chamber of Commerce, spoke to Silverscreen India about Pushpa’s box-office performance. “Despite seeing a slight drop in the early morning shows (7.30 and 9 am) over the weekend, the film is running with close to 100% occupancy. Five shows a day are playing per screen. On Saturday and Sunday, we witnessed family and women audience coming in good numbers. Over the first three days, the film has seen about 90% occupancy overall,” he said.
Reddy added that Spider-Man: No Way Home is giving a “tough competition” to Pushpa. The Hollywood film is seeing about 90-100% occupancy, he noted. Reddy, who is also the owner of Hyderabad’s Sudha Theatre, is running both films in his 5-screen standalone theatre. “We’ve allotted about seven shows for Spider-Man and the rest for Pushpa.”
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Given both Akhanda and Pushpa are doing well, the dry spell for theatres appears to be on the way out, he added. “The business will continue to stay strong with films like 83 and Shyam Singha Roy set for release in the coming weeks.”
“Pushpa’s numbers might drop a bit when 83 comes out next week. Being a cricket-related film, the latter will connect well with the audience,” he opined.
While Pushpa: The Rise is the first instalment of the two-part movie, on Sunday, the makers revealed that the second part is titled Pushpa: The Rule.