With gross box office of Rs. 12,226 crores, 2023 became the first-ever year to cross `12,000 Cr mark at the India box office, surpassing 2019 (Rs. 10,948 crores). Hindi cinema rebounded in a big way with the top four movies being Hindi. Two of them starred Shah Rukh Khan. On the flip side some categories like Hollywood and Malayalam de-grew.
Ormax Media has released the report – Ormax Box Office Report 2023. The report has data points such as:
- Hindi cinema also saw its best-ever year, with a gross box office of Rs. 5,380 crores, crossing the Rs. 5,000 crore mark for the first time. Hindi cinema’s box office share (44%) reached the pre-pandemic level of 44%, up from 33% in 2022. The resurgence of Hindi language films can be gauged from the fact that four films crossing the Rs. 550 crore gross mark. The contribution of dubbed versions of films from South India dropped from 32% in 2022 to only 5% in 2023. Only one (Salaar) out of the top 10 Hindi films is a dubbed version.
- While Tamil and Telugu languages held on to their share, Hollywood and Kannada cinema lost their share compared to 2022, moving down from 12% to 9%, and from 8% to 3%, respectively.
- While more than 1,000 films released in the year 2023, just the top 10 films contributed 40% of the year’s total box office. Jawan was the highest-grossing film of 2023, with gross box office of Rs. 734 crores
- The top four films of 2023 are all original Hindi language films, i.e., Jawan, Animal, Pathaan and Gadar 2. These films individually crossed the Rs. 600 crore gross mark. Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire, Jailer and Leo were the other three films to cross Rs. 400 crore mark at the box office
- Hindi and Punjabi cinema have grown by more than 50%. Tamil is the only other major language to see doubledigit growth. After its best-ever year in 2022, Kannada cinema saw a steep decline of 61% in its gross box office in 2023
- 2023 registered 94.3 crore (943 Million) footfalls, a growth of only 6% over 2022. Footfalls remain below the pre-pandemic level of 103 crore in 2019
- The Average Ticket Price (ATP) grew by 9% vis-à-vis 2022, from `119 to `130. The growth is primarily an outcome of the increase in box office contribution of Hindi cinema, which operates at higher ATP compared to the South language industries
- While most language industries (except Hindi) struggled to hold on their 2022 performance (Tamil & Telugu showed growth of 14% and 6% respectively), Punjabi cinema resurged in 2023, with 60% growth in box office over 2022.
- Footfalls grew by 6% in 2023, but were below the pre-pandemic level (2019), indicating that the growth in Gross Box office in 2023 (15%) was driven more by an increase in Average Ticket Price (ATP) than by a growth in footfalls.
Telugu and Tamil cinema Going From Strength To Strength: 2023 topped 2022 as the best-ever year till date for Telugu cinema, with the industry crossing the Rs. 2,000 crore mark for the second year in a row.
Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire emerged as the top grosser for Telugu cinema, contributing 12% to the total Telugu box office in 2023. Four other films crossed the `100 crore gross mark, and a consistent flow of releases ensured steady performance through the year for the Telugu film industry.
2023 was the highest-grossing year for Tamil cinema too, and the industry came close to achieving the `2,000 mark for the first time. At 22 crore footfalls (best-ever, at least in the last decade), Tamil cinema ranks third, only behind Hindi and Telugu cinema.
Two Tamil films crossed the Rs. 300 crore mark in 2023, while three other films crossed the `100 Cr mark. The top 10 films contributed 71% to the total Tamil box office in 2023, vis-à-vis 68% in 2022, indicating that the industry became even more dependent on big-ticket/ event films in 2023.
Hollywood Underwhelms: 2023 was an underwhelming year for Hollywood, with the industry experiencing de-growth over 2022, and being at the 2016/2017 level in 2023. Excluding the two pandemic-affected years, Hollywood footfalls in India fell below the five crore mark for the first time since 2014. While three films crossed the `100 crore mark, the absence of any `200+ crore films limited the box office performance of Hollywood in India in 2023.
Except Oppenheimer, all films in the top 10 list are franchise-led, highlighting the limited potential of non-franchise Hollywood content in India. Also struggling was the Malayalam theatrical business which shrunk by 10% in 2023, going below the Rs. 600 crore mark. Excluding the two pandemic-affected years, Malayalam footfalls dropped below the 7.0 Cr mark for the first time since at least 2015.
Two films crossed the Rs. 50 crore mark, with ‘2018’ becoming the biggest grosser of all time for Malayalam cinema. Only 13 films crossed Rs. 10 crore, and 19 films crossed `5 Cr, vis-à-vis 18 & 32 in 2022, indicating that the industry suffered from the lack of a good second string of releases in 2023.
A Very Poor Year For Kannada Cinema: 2023 performed very poorly for Kannada cinema, with even the pandemic-affected 2021 being higher than it.
Footfalls also saw a huge drop of 63%, and just managed to the touch the 3 Cr mark by the end of 2023. Only five films crossed the Rs. 20 crore mark, highlighting how the absence of successful big-ticket films affected the Kannada film industry in 2023.
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