Vijay Deverakonda’s Ranabaali is heading towards its USA premieres, but the early pre-sales are raising serious concerns.
With eight days still to go, the film has reportedly sold only 743 tickets and collected around $13,125 from USA premiere bookings. For a star who was once considered to have genuine Tier-1 potential, those numbers look extremely poor. At this stage, they look more like a Tier-3 star collections than someone expected to deliver sensational openings in the US.
Vijay’s career changed dramatically after Arjun Reddy and Geetha Govindam. He became one of the most exciting young stars in Telugu cinema. But his subsequent run has been far from consistent.
Disasters like Family Star and Kingdom have seriously dented his credibility and stardom, and the impact appears to be visible in the advance bookings for Ranabaali.
The ground-level buzz is also weak. The songs and teaser failed to create the kind of excitement needed for a big opening. With Jailer 2 also arriving around the same period, Ranabaali faces heavy competition for audience attention.
Since Nani and Vijay Deverakonda are often pitted against each other by trade and fans, Nani’s The Paradise becomes an interesting comparison. The film opened sensationally in the USA, with premieres reportedly collecting around $1.45 million. Despite brutal negative talk, it went on to collect around Rs. 150 crores worldwide in its lifetime. Getting such an opening may not be possible for Ranabaali now, but the film needs to put up strong numbers in its full run to restore confidence in Vijay’s theatrical market.
The immediate challenge is the trailer, which is releasing this evening. It needs to be a genuine hype booster. A strong trailer can still create the missing buzz and push advance sales to some extent.
But even that may not be enough. Ranabaali needs exceptional word of mouth after release because the current pre-release situation leaves very little margin for error.
Vijay has not delivered a genuine theatrical success since 2018. Ranabaali is now a crucial test of whether Vijay Deverakonda can rebuild the star pull that once looked almost unstoppable.
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