After three fantastic months at the box office, October was an average month for theatrical releases. With a collection of Rs 812 crore, October turned out to be the least profitable month of 2023 at the cinemas since May, as per The India Box Office Report by Ormax Media. Almost half of October’s collection was down to Leo, the Tamil action blockbuster starring Vijay, Trisha Krishnan and Sanjay Dutt that has also become the highest-grossing non-Hindi film of the year so far.

While different language industries use different parameters for assessing box office numbers (Gross, Nett or Share), Ormax’s report adopts Gross Box Office as the unified measurement. Under this, a film’s collection is always attributed to the month of its release, even if the film goes on to produce more or better numbers in the subsequent months. For films released in multiple languages, box office numbers reflect the contribution of such films to all the corresponding languages.

Lokesh Kanagaraj-directed Leo remained in a league of its own in October, having amassed a staggering Rs 405 crore. This was more than the next four films on the list combined. In second place was Bhagavanth Kesari, a Telugu action drama directed by Anil Ravipudi that accumulated an impressive Rs 104 crore. Rounding up the podium was the Vidhu Vinod Chopra-helmed sleeper hit 12th Fail, starring Vikrant Massey, which notched up Rs 48 crore.

Another Telugu action film, Tiger Nageswara Rao — starring Ravi Teja and Kriti Sanon’s sister Nupur Sanon — closed out October in fourth place with Rs 40 crore, edging past Akshay Kumar-starrer Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue, which collected Rs 39 crore.

Leo’s stupendous performance takes it to fourth on the list of 2023’s highest-grossing films, with Jawan (Rs 741 crore) and Pathaan (Rs 646 crore) leading the way, followed by Gadar 2 (Rs 628 crore). As for the annual figures, 2023 has grossed Rs 9,621 crore so far, which is six per cent higher than the same stage last year. With Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif-starrer Tiger 3’s strong initial performance in November, along with the scheduled releases of Prabhas-starrer Salaar and Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki in December, 2023 is set to overtake 2019’s tally of Rs 10,948 crore, a box office record. In fact, at its current rate, 2023 should finish with Rs 11,545 crore, becoming the first year to cross the Rs 11,000 crore threshold.

As for the language share, a relatively disappointing month for Bollywood releases led to Hindi slipping one percentage point to 41 per cent in October, which was still well clear of Telugu and Tamil, both of which registered 18 per cent of the box office share.