Looking in general at the film industries that have recovered at the box office since the pandemic, and those that are still struggling, it does seem that the more established production hubs of Hollywood, Bollywood and South Korea (I have an aversion to the term Hallyuwood) are having a tough time, whereas some industries that were less well known previously have come to the fore.
Hindi-language cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, may still be the biggest category at the Indian box office, but hasn’t returned to its former glory, and last year saw receipts decline by 13% to $543.9M (Rs46.8BN), according to a report from Mumbai-based analytics firm Ormax Media.
Two Telugu-language titles, Pushpa 2: The Rule [PICTURED ABOVE] and Kalki 2898 AD, topped India’s 2024 box office with $162m and $90m, respectively (see Top 15 chart below). The Hindi dubbed version of Pushpa 2: The Rule took $103m alone, outgrossing the biggest Hindi film of the year, horror comedy Stree 2, which took $80m.
Indeed, if the Hindi dubbed versions of South Indian films are discounted, Bollywood’s combined box office declined by a whopping 37% in 2024. Streamlined spoke to Ormax founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor to find out what gives.
THE NUMBERS:
2024 India total box office: $1.38BN (Rs118.3BN)
YoY change: -3.2%
2024 India total admissions: 883 million
YoY change: -6.4%
Market share by language:
Hindi: 40%
Telugu: 20%
Tamil: 15%
Malayalam: 10%
Hollywood: 8%
Kannada: 3%
Increasingly Polarised Market
Following a relatively weak year, Hindi cinema’s share of the overall market decreased to 40% last year compared to 44% in 2023. Of course, the timing of releases impacts annual box office results, and Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor points out that 2023 was bookended by two big Hindi films – Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, and Animal with Ranbir Kapoor. If either of these titles had been released a few weeks on either side in 2022 or 2024, the results would have looked quite different.
Meanwhile, no huge tentpole style movies with major stars were released by the Hindi industry in 2024, even during the Eid and Diwali festival periods. The highest-grossing Hindi films, Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, are both horror comedies that are not cast dependent. Kapoor observes that this is partly due to hesitancy on the part of producers.
“What seems to be happening is that, because the past few years have been uncertain, there’s a lot of projects in pre-production, but they’re not quite sure whether they want to make it, whether it’s viable theatrically or will eventually go to streaming,” Kapoor tells Streamlined. “And streaming platforms today are not really open to taking films which have not gone to theatres. They realise they’d have to market them, and they’d rather market series than films.”
On the other hand, the South Indian industries, in particular the Telugu industry in Hyderabad, rolled out several big-budget blockbusters laden with special effects and major stars. Kapoor says the market has become increasingly polarised since the pandemic and the rise of streaming – audiences will only turn out at theatres for the biggest titles. “What we’ve seen is that the contribution of the top ten films continues to increase. Before the pandemic it was around 35-35% but now its closer to 50%. So for any particular language to work, you need a sizeable number of films in the top ten,” Kapoor says.
Increasingly Polarised Market
Many industry pundits have blamed Bollywood producers for being too hasty in selling their films to streaming platforms during the pandemic – while the South Indian industries took a punt on theatrical release even when cinema occupancy was low. But Kapoor says another factor is the Hindi industry’s move towards story and concept-driven cinema aimed at urban multiplex audiences, which started in the early 2010s. Those are the kinds of films that audiences now expect to watch at home or have replaced with series.
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