Wednesday Curse for U.S. Premieres

The U.S. market has become a key battleground for Tollywood. Early screenings and reviews typically begin with Thursday U.S. premieres for Telugu films. This Thursday U.S. premiere culture and Friday release in AP and Telangana pattern has been the norm for Telugu films in the U.S., barring a few holiday-driven changes. However, several recent films that had premieres on Wednesday have suffered badly, leading to major losses for distributors.

Latest to join this is Vijay Deverakonda’s Kingdom, which had a Wednesday release in the U.S. The film failed to hold after initial momentum. Hari Hara Veera Mallu also had a Wednesday premieres and faced a similar fate, despite some initial premier numbers. Both films collapsed after the first reviews came in.

Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life also had a Wednesday release and failed miserably. Nani’s Hit 3 started strong with impressive premiere and day-one numbers but saw a steep drop once audience talk surfaced. On the same day, Retro clashed with Hit 3 and turned into a complete failure at the U.S. box office.

Before all this, Jack featuring Sidhu Jonnalagadda had Wednesday premieres and became a disaster. Jack’s performance was so poor that even calling it a disaster feels generous. That makes six recent Telugu films that had Wednesday premieres in the U.S.—all of which bombed, making them last ventures for many U.S. buyers and distributors.