The box office in Tollywood right now is basically a battlefield. If you think the "Baahubali" era was peak Telugu cinema, honestly, you haven't been paying attention to the numbers coming out in 2025 and early 2026. Everything shifted. We aren't just talking about local hits anymore; we are talking about global juggernauts that make Hollywood accountants do a double-take.
Numbers don't lie. But they do get messy.
Tracking highest grossing movies Telugu is kinda like trying to catch a moving train. One week, a film is a "disaster" according to Twitter trolls, and the next, it’s crossing the $1,000$ crore mark because the overseas market went nuclear.
The New King: Pushpa 2 and the $2,000$ Crore Dream
Let’s be real. Nobody expected Pushpa 2: The Rule to do what it did. While Baahubali 2 held the crown for years with its ₹1,810 crore haul, Allu Arjun basically walked in and set the house on fire. By the time the dust settled in late 2025, Pushpa 2 had raked in a mind-bending ₹2,863 crore worldwide.
It’s the first Telugu film to truly shatter the ₹2,000 crore ceiling.
Why did it work? It wasn't just the "Thaggedhe Le" attitude. The film tapped into a massive North Indian audience that now views Telugu stars as their own. In India alone, it pulled in over ₹2,080 crore. To put that in perspective, most "big" films struggle to hit ₹500 crore.
The Heavy Hitters (The Current Top 5)
If you’re looking at the all-time list as of January 2026, the hierarchy looks a bit different than it did two years ago.
- Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024): ₹2,863 crore. Absolute insanity. It’s sitting on a throne that might not be touched for a decade.
- Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017): ₹1,810.60 crore. The OG. The movie that taught us what "Pan-India" actually meant.
- RRR (2022): Roughly ₹1,310–₹1,387 crore. The Oscar buzz and the "Naatu Naatu" fever gave this movie legs that lasted for years.
- Kalki 2898 AD (2024): ₹1,042–₹1,100 crore. Prabhas proved that sci-fi isn't just for the West. It’s a massive win for Nag Ashwin.
- Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire (2023): ₹610–₹700 crore. It was a violent, dark ride that brought back the "Vintage Prabhas" everyone was craving.
The Myth of the "Flop" Blockbuster
Here is where it gets spicy. You'll see movies like Devara: Part 1 or The Raja Saab popping up in the top lists, yet trade analysts sometimes label them as "losing" or "average."
Why? Budget.
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If a movie like Devara makes ₹500 crore (which it did, crossing the milestone in late 2024), you’d think it’s a massive hit. But if the production and marketing cost ₹400 crore, the profit margins are razor-thin. Jr. NTR’s performance was legendary, and it crushed it in Andhra and Telangana, but the high acquisition costs for distributors mean a "hit" on paper isn't always a "hit" in the bank.
What’s Happening Right Now in 2026?
We are currently seeing the rise of the "Senior Power." Chiranjeevi just dropped Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu for Sankranti 2026, and it’s already crossed ₹200 crore worldwide. It’s actually outperforming Prabhas’s The Raja Saab in several territories.
It’s wild.
The audience is becoming more selective. You can’t just put a superstar on a poster and expect ₹500 crore anymore. The Raja Saab had a massive opening—over ₹100 crore on day one—but it faced steep weekday drops. Fans want substance. They want the "Kalki" world-building or the "Pushpa" character depth.
Surprising Entries You Probably Forgot
- Hanu-Man (2024): This is the ultimate underdog story. Made on a fraction of the budget of a typical Prabhas film, it grossed between ₹300–₹350 crore. In terms of Return on Investment (ROI), it’s arguably the most successful Telugu film of the last five years.
- Sankranthiki Vasthunam (2025): Anil Ravipudi’s mid-budget magic pulled in nearly ₹300 crore. It proves that family audiences still own the Sankranti season.
- They Call Him OG (2025): Pawan Kalyan’s return was a massive event. It grossed around ₹300 crore, though it’s debated whether it fully recovered its astronomical costs.
The "Prabhas" Factor
You can't talk about highest grossing movies Telugu without mentioning Prabhas. Look at the top 10 list. He's everywhere. Baahubali 1 & 2, Saaho, Salaar, Kalki, Adipurush. Even his "failures" like Adipurush (₹392 crore) or Saaho (₹439 crore) make more money than 90% of other actors' biggest hits.
He has a floor. Even if a movie is bad, his fans will ensure it crosses ₹300 crore. That is a level of stardom we haven't seen since the days of NT Rama Rao or Chiranjeevi in his prime.
What to Watch For Next
The landscape is changing again. We’re moving away from just "action" and into "mythology-tech" (think Kalki) and "rural-raw" (think Pushpa).
The next big shift? Watch the Japan and China markets. RRR and Baahubali did well there, but Pushpa 2 had a weirdly slow start in Japan (only 886 admissions on day one). It shows that "mass" masala doesn't always translate globally as easily as the "epic" scale of Rajamouli.
If you want to track these numbers yourself, don't just look at the gross. Look at the distributor share. A movie can gross ₹1,000 crore, but if the share is only ₹400 crore against a ₹500 crore cost, someone is losing money.
Actionable Insights for the Movie Buff:
- Check sites like Sacnilk or Pinkvilla for daily updates, but always wait for the "Final Run" report.
- Distinguish between "Gross" (total tickets sold) and "Net" (minus taxes).
- Watch the US Premieres; often, Telugu films make 20-30% of their total profit just from the US/Canada opening weekend.
The era of the ₹1,000 crore film is no longer an anomaly. It's the new benchmark. If a "Big 4" hero (Prabhas, NTR Jr, Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan) doesn't hit ₹500 crore in 2026, it’s going to be seen as a massive disappointment.
To stay ahead of the curve, keep an eye on Spirit (Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Prabhas) and the SSMB29 project. Those are the only ones likely to challenge the Pushpa 2 record. The game has changed, and the stakes have never been higher.