Once upon a time in America, family-friendly movies were more popular, and directors like Trivikram, Sukumar, and Sekhar Kammula, as well as actors like Mahesh and Nani, were popular in the overseas market.
However, with the number of new-age students from AP and TS increased tremendously in the USA, the patronage for mass films has been increasing tremendously.
As a result, movies such as Akhanda, Waltair Veerayya, Dhamaka, and Dhamki also ran well at the US Box Office.
Nizam and Visakhapatnam are big markets for Telugu cinema, and the overseas market also has grown phenomenally.
Mahesh's film previously had an American market of 10 to 12 crores, which has now increased to 15 crores. The complete overseas rights were sold at Rs 22 Cr.
The overall overseas deal for Salar was reached at a rate of Rs 70 crores out of which Rs 40 Cr is only for USA.
The extent of Project K and Pushpa 2 is also highly anticipated. ProjectK is at Rs 150 Cr for complete overseas, while Pushpa2 is quoting Rs 100 Cr for the same.
Ram Charan-Shankar's movie is also tentatively around Rs 40 Cr-50 Cr for the overseas rights.
Looking at these figures Mahesh Babu is looking like a mid range hero in comparison with Prabhas, Allu Arjun and Ram Charan. He may have to wait for Rajamouli's film to come back and show himself in the league of top heroes.