South Indian films dominate box office in 2024: Ormax report

With a gross box office collection of INR 11,833 crores, 2024 emerged as the second-best year of all time for the Indian cinema sector in terms of box office revenues, trailing only behind the previous year's (2023) revenues of INR 12,226 crores. This was revealed in the latest report, 'The Ormax Box Office Report: 2024,' published by Ormax Media.

The report shows that the sector’s performance witnessed a 3% decline compared to 2023’s record collection of INR 12,226 crores, making 2024 the fourth year to cross the INR 10,000 crores mark. The overall footfalls at Indian theatres dropped by 6% to 88.3 crores–down from 94.3 crores in 2023–lower than the pre-pandemic levels.

Source: Ormax

The average ticket price (ATP) at movie halls marginally increased in 2024 by 3% to INR 134 from INR 130 in 2023, reflecting stability compared to double-digit growth in previous years. In contrast, Hollywood movies' average ticket prices (ATP) remained the highest, at INR 245, followed by Hindi at INR 203.

Star performers

In 2024, the Telugu film Pushpa 2: The Rule emerged as the highest-grossing film across languages, earning INR 1,403 crore in box-office revenues. Its Hindi-dubbed version grossed INR 889 crores, making it the highest-grossing Hindi film ever.

The three Indian films that crossed the INR 500 crore mark in 2024 were Pushpa 2: The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD (INR 776 crores), and Stree 2 (INR 698 crores). The next set of movies that crossed the INR 300 crores mark at the box office in 2024 were Devara – Part 1 (INR 347 crores), Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (INR 311 crores), and The Greatest Of All Time (INR 305 crores).

Among Hollywood titles, Mufasa: The Lion King was the highest-grossing release, with a box office collection of INR 178 crores, followed by Deadpool and Wolverine (INR 160 crores).

Southern supremacy

The year 2024 saw substantial changes in market shares across language segments. Dipping by 4%, Hindi cinema's share stood at 40%, while Telugu (20%) and Tamil cinema (15%) retained their market shares from last year.

Among regional films, Marathi cinema experienced a 12% decline to INR 177 crores, while Bengali cinema saw a marginal growth of 4%, reaching INR 68 crores. Gujarati cinema posted a strong 66% growth, touching INR 84 crores, led by the blockbuster movie, Jhamkudi.

Collectively, South Indian cinema dominated the country's theatres with a revenue collection of INR 5,646 crores in 2024–nearly 20.67% higher than Hindi cinema. Hindi cinema's box office collection dropped from INR 5,380 crores in 2023 to INR 4,679 crores in 2024. Footfalls for Hindi cinema also dropped by 16% to 23 crores in 2024, much lower than the pre-pandemic levels, which regularly crossed 30 crores.

Source: Ormax

Correspondingly, the original Hindi-language films saw a steep, 37% decline, with collection falling from INR 5,085 crores in 2023 to INR 3,215 crores in 2024. Interestingly, the dubbed versions of South Indian films contributed 31% (INR 1,464 crores) to Hindi cinema’s total collection, highlighting the industry’s rising importance of dubbed content.

A closer look down south

The Malayalam film industry crossed the INR 1,000 crore mark for the first time with an INR 1,165 crore collection–a 104% increase from 2023’s INR 572 crores! Manjummel Boys emerged as the highest-grossing Malayalam film ever, earning INR 157 crores, followed by Aavesham (INR 101 crores) and Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life (INR 95 crores). Footfalls for Malayalam movies nearly doubled to 12.6 crores led by their strong performances in Kerala and neighbouring states.

Telugu cinema recorded its best-ever year with a collection of INR 2,348 crores, a 4% increase from INR 2,265 crores in 2023. However, footfalls declined by 12% to 21.3 crores, down from 24.2 crores in 2023. Apart from Pushpa 2 (INR 418 crores for its Telugu version), Kalki 2898 AD (INR 353 crores) and Devara – Part 1 (INR 263 crores) were key contributors to Telugu cinema’s success.

Tamil cinema retained its market position but saw a 7% decline in collection to INR 1,829 crores from INR 1,961 crores in 2023. The Greatest Of All Time led Tamil releases with INR 266 crores, followed by Amaran (INR 199 crores) and Vettaiyan (INR 149 crores). The industry’s footfalls dropped below 20 crores for the first time since the pandemic. The Kannada film industry narrowly crossed the INR 300 crore mark with INR 304 crore in collection.