Bollywood Continues To Struggle At Box Office with Big-Budget Flops & Content Issues

The Indian film industry is experiencing a challenging summer. As per reports, first-quarter FY2024 box office revenue fell by 30 per cent. This marks another unsatisfactory summer for the industry. Most Hindi and regional language films have underperformed at the box office over the past two months. Only a few Malayalam films have succeeded.

The recent Bollywood release, Chandu Champion, appears to be performing well. While, big banner films such as Bade Miyan, Chote Miyan, and Maidaan were box office disasters, some low- to medium-budget films, like Munjya, Crew, Article 370, and Srikanth, did very well.

The Hindi film box office receipts from January to June 2024 will total INR 1300 crore. This is less than the INR 1,550 crore earned during the same period in 2023. 

In 2023, the Indian box office surpassed the INR 12,000 crore mark for the first time, reaching INR 12,226 crore. Four Hindi films crossed the INR 600 crore mark that year. 

As per reports, a major film also tried to boost advance booking ticket sales to continue this trend. However, the movie failed at the box office despite initial efforts.

The current slump can also be linked to the postponement of a few big films and a poor supply of Hollywood content. The prolonged writers' strike negatively impacted the industry.

The Hollywood and Tamil film industries also saw declines of 24% and 31%, respectively, from January to May this year. In contrast, Malayalam cinema experienced a significant increase, with earnings reaching INR 713 crore between January and May, up from INR 572 crore for all of 2023.

June remains uncertain with the release of Prabhas's film Kalki 2898 AD on the 27th. Industry insiders expect higher box office receipts in the second half of 2024. Major films like Sarfira, Pushpa 2, and Singham Again are set for release. However, creating appealing content remains a challenge.

Monetizing films has become difficult. High multiplex ticket costs discourage audiences, making OTT platforms more attractive. Films can no longer demand high fees for TV or OTT debuts. This pressure affects the film industry’s economics.