MUMBAI: ‘Chhaava’ was the big Hindi release of February 2025. Ormax Media says that Ormax Cinematix’s FBO could forecast its performance within 12% of actual. This is its proprietary campaign tracking and forecasting tool for theatrical film releases in nine major languages, tracking over 750 films every year.
Almost all Hindi releases in February were either supported by ticket discounts (or BOGO offers), or benefited from ‘corporate bookings’. The impact of such interventions, especially the latter, is not native to the FBO Model, and hence, one can expect higher-than-usual fluctuations between FBO and actual first-day box office, if these trends continue.
Tamil film ‘Vidaamuyarchi’ was the biggest release of the month in South Indian languages. The film under-performed vis-à-vis its FBO by about 20%, largely because of mixed to negative audience response, which can impact collections as the opening days progresses. The Tamil version grossed Rs. 4.3 Crores in Karnataka on its opening day, which was also a notch lower than its FBO (Rs. 5.8 Crores).
In contrast, relatively smaller films ‘Thandel’ (Telugu) and ‘Dragon’ (Tamil) outperformed their FBO.
The only major Hollywood release of February, ‘Captain America: Brave New World’, failed to take the advantage of Valentine’s Day, traditionally a strong day for urban markets, because of the clash with Chhaava, as well as mixed to poor reviews for the film. The film’s collected Rs. 4.5 Crores nett, which is significantly lower than its FBO on the day of release (₹7.4 Crores).
There were no major releases in the other languages in which OCX tracks films, i.e., Marathi, Punjabi, and Bengali, in February 2025.
