Box Office Collections Remain Below the INR 5,000 Crore Mark in the 1st Half of 2023
Written by Sanjay Kumar
News highlights
- India’s box office collections for the first half of 2023 dipped below INR 5,000 crore, down 15% YoY.
- Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan dominated the first half, contributing over 13% to total collections.
- Hindi language share rose to 37%, while the Kannada language dropped to 2% in the first half of 2023.
The cumulative box office collections for film releases in India, across different languages, witnessed a significant decline in the first half of 2023, falling below INR 5,000 crore for the first time. According to a report by media consulting firm Ormax, the gross collections for the initial six months of the calendar year reached INR 4,868 crore, indicating a 15% decrease compared to the previous year.
Leading the pack in the first half of 2023 was Shah Rukh Khan’s film, Pathaan, which contributed more than 13% to the overall collections this year. The Hindi language’s share increased from 33% in 2022 to 37%, while the Kannada language experienced a sharp decline from 8% to a mere 2%.
Pathaan, across all languages, amassed an estimated gross box office collection of INR 646 crore, followed by the mythological film Adipurush with INR 333 crore, the political drama The Kerala Story with INR 263 crore, and the Tamil films Varisu with ₹212 crore and Ponniyin Selvan 2 with INR 206 crore.
Based on the current trajectory, it is projected that the box office collections for 2023 will amount to INR 9,736 crore, down from the INR 10,637 crore generated in 2022.
On a positive note, the second half of 2023 boasts a strong lineup of films that are expected to perform well, particularly Jawan, Salaar, and Tiger 3, as stated in the report.
The success of K.G.F: Chapter 2 and RRR resulted in the combined share of the four South Indian languages accounting for 50% of the box office collections in 2022, while Hindi constituted only 33%, including a significant contribution from dubbed versions of the two Southern films. However, in the year 2023 thus far, the Hindi language’s share has risen to 37%, while the share of South Indian languages has dropped from 50% to 44%, primarily due to a significant decline in the Kannada language’s contribution, falling from 8% in 2022 to 2% from January to June 2023, as mentioned in the report.
