Vishnu Manchu's Kannappa opening weekend numbers are in: Where does it land among biggest Telugu openers of 2025?

Mukesh Kumar Singh's Vishnu Manchu-starrer Kannappa brought in good numbers during the opening weekend. See how it fared compared to other hits this year.

Mukesh Kumar Singh’s Vishnu Manchu-starrer Kannappa has everything going for it. It boasts of a star cast the likes of Prabhas, Akshay Kumar, Mohanlal and Sarathkumar. Beautiful locales of New Zealand passing off for a south India untouched by modernity. And above all, the gut and gumption of Vishnu, who believed Friday would be his.

Vishnu Manchu plays a hunter called Thinnadu in Kannappa.

The issue is that Vishnu had aimed high and made such claims before. Be it with Voter, Mosagallu, or Ginna, the actor aimed to push the bar, but it never really landed. He even admitted recently that ‘no Tollywood director’ would be willing to work with him on Kannappa, and the failure of his last few films only added to the mistrust.

Kannappa’s opening weekend box office

But boy, did Vishnu prove the naysayers wrong, and how. Kannappa is still laden with issues that the audience has consistently pointed out since the film’s release. It seems to be a general consensus that the first half of the film tests your patience, but the fag end of the second half soars. Despite all that, according to Sacnilk, the film managed to bring in ₹23.75 crore net in India in its opening weekend.

These numbers are a personal best for Vishnu, who has been struggling to star in films that leave an impact for a while now. His last film, Ginna, made ₹24 lakh worldwide. And the much-hyped Mosagallu lived up to its title and brought in ₹1.65 crore worldwide. As Vishnu himself admits, the audience might have been lured to the theatres to watch Kannappa with Prabhas featuring in an exciting cameo, but Vishnu also seems to have finally turned things around for himself.

Where Kannappa stands in 2025 films

Kannappa’s opening weekend numbers are impressive, but the film still has a long way to go to find its footing or even break even, as it was made on a budget of approximately ₹200 crore. Ram Charan’s Game Changer might be a disappointment in the long run, but it still registered a ₹88.5 crore net opening weekend in India that any Telugu film has yet to beat. Venkatesh’s Sankranthiki Vasthunam comes second with its ₹60.5 crore opening.

Movie name	Opening weekend numbers (net India)
Game Changer	₹88.5 crore
Sankranthiki Vasthunam	₹60.5 crore
Daaku Maharaaj	₹50.4 crore
HIT: The Third Case	₹41.9 crore
Thandel	₹36.35 crore
Mad Square	₹25.25 crore
Kannappa	₹23.75 crore
Court	₹14.8 crore

Balakrishna’s Daaku Maharaaj had an opening of ₹50.5 crore, while Nani’s HIT: The Third Case had brought in ₹41.9 crore. Naga Chaitanya’s Thandel had made ₹36.35 crore in its opening weekend. Narne Nithiin’s ensemble film MAD Square made ₹25.25 crore, beating Kannappa by a thin margin. Kannappa’s opening numbers have, however, beaten Priyadarshi’s much-loved film Court, which had made ₹14.8 crore.

While this still leaves Kannappa in a cushy spot, given history, Vishnu and the film still have the uphill task of sustaining numbers through the week and keeping the audience’s interest until the film is in the clear. Will he manage to do that? Time will tell.