May comes to the rescue as box office numbers finally pick up in 2023, following three disappointing months. According to The India Box Office Report by Ormax Media, May proved to be a game-changer, raking in an impressive overall collection of Rs 763 crore. This makes it the second-best performing month of the year, right after January, which brought in a whopping Rs 1,388 crore.
Unfortunately, compared to last year, the box office numbers for the first five months of 2023 have seen a decline of 22 percent. Different language industries use various parameters to assess box office performance, such as Gross, Nett, or Share. Ormax’s report adopts the Gross Box Office as the unified measurement. This means that a film’s collection is always attributed to the month of its release, regardless of any subsequent success in later months. For films released in multiple languages, the box office numbers reflect their contribution across all corresponding languages.
The highlight of May was Sudipto Sen’s controversial film, The Kerala Story, which generated a buzz and amassed a staggering Rs 268 crore in just five days since its release. This propelled it to second place on the list of highest-grossing films of the year, surpassing Varisu. However, it still trails behind the blockbuster Pathaan (Rs 646 crore) featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham.
Two other films managed to cross the Rs 100 crore mark in May. The Hollywood action flick Fast X, starring Vin Diesel and Jason Momoa, earned Rs 135 crore, while 2018, a Malayalam drama centered around catastrophic floods, brought in Rs 103 crore. The top five also include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (at Rs 72 crore) and the Tamil drama Pichaikkaran 2 (at Rs 34 crore).
Despite the boost in May, the projected box office collection for 2023 is expected to reach Rs 9,211 crore, falling short of last year’s total of Rs 10,637 crore. To match the collection of 2022, the remaining seven months of the year would need to average at least Rs 971 crore per month, which would require one or more blockbusters every month.
In terms of language share, Hindi remains consistent with a 38 percent share, the same as in April. However, both Telugu and Tamil saw a slight decline since April, with the two segments ending May with 20 percent and 18 percent shares, respectively.
