It is an undeniable fact that overseas collections form a considerable chunk of the total revenue generated by any Telugu cinema. In the last one year, more than a dozen films have performed exceedingly well in the US. Sensible and crowd pleasing content is one reason and perfect planning by the distributors is other reason for the commercial success of these films. Perfect planning of overseas premier shows is very crucial as far as the box office prospects of a film are concerned.
Premier shows are very much essential because there won’t be any effect of the web reviews and the word of mouth is going to influence the first weekend collections. Films like Nannaku Prematho and A..Aa, which grossed more than $2 Million, are the best examples because the strong word of mouth has overcome the mediocre web reviews and set the tone for a stupendous box office run.
Now let’s see what is the case when there is no perfect planning for the premiers. Films like Eedo Rakam Aado Raakam and Selfie Raja, which had a decent run in India due to the positive word of mouth, were wiped out without any trace in overseas. The main reason is the poor planning by their distributors. For both these films, there were no premier shows screened and the poor web reviews have greatly effected the weekend shows and both these films hardly grossed anything.
Also, the recently released Jakkanna has a similar story. No premiers were screened for this Sunil starer and the poor web reviews have completely effected the weekend shows and the film failed to collect even $ 1000.
So, Tollywood producers should make sure that their films get premiers screened before the word of mouth starts influencing the audience.