The Naga Chaitanya-Sai Pallavi starrer ‘Love Story’ has beaten all records to emerge as what we can call the first Indian superhit film post the second Covid wave. The Sekhar Kammula directorial that kept seeing a postponed release date, finally hit theatres on Friday, the 24th of September. ‘Love Story‘ has been extremely well received upon its release to say the least, with celebratory video clips from various theatres going viral. Trade analysts were predicting that the romantic social drama would guarantee better results than the recent Telugu success ‘Seetimaarr’ and their predictions have indeed proven to be true.
‘Love Story‘ had already made records when its pre-release collections reached 306k dollars from 226 locations in the US. It is the highest opening for any film this year, surpassing that of Pawan Kalyan’s ‘Vakeel Saab‘ (300k $) and Vijay’s ‘Master’ (138k $). In India, on the first day of its theatrical run, the film has grossed 10.8 crores, which is also the highest first day collections for any Indian movie post the second Covid wave. Out of that, the collections in the two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone, has been an impressive 6.94 crores.
With the previous big-ticket releases, like ‘Bell Bottom’, ‘Thalaivii’ and ‘Seetimaarr’ struggling to make 3-4 crores on the first day, ‘Love Story’ has surpassed all and jumped ahead to show record-breaking collections. The film released in more than 700 theatres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while the worldwide theatrical count was more than 1000 screens. With its pre-release business in the two Telugu states, the film had already acquired Rs 26.3 crore, which is almost the break-even target of the film.
The weekend collections of the film are obviously expected to be better than Friday’s, with the day’s worldwide collections standing at 16.5 crores. At this rate, ‘Love Story’ could have even recovered profits within the first two days of its run in cinemas alone, the budget of the film being around 25 crore. With a good storyline and the performances of both lead actors being praised to the moon, the film has been trending upon its release and is likely to see a good run in the first week. Some cinema owners have also taken to social media to announce housefull shows in their theatres.