The second quarter of 2023 began at the box office with a relatively disappointing April, which saw two big releases, but not much else, as per The India Box Office Report by Ormax Media. With an overall collection of Rs 618 crore, April fared worse than March and only trails February as the worst-performing month of 2023 so far. Compared to 2022, box office numbers for the first four months of the calendar are down by 22 per cent.
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.
Ponniyin Selvan-II soars into the Rs 200-crore club and the top three of 2023
Despite releasing on April 28, just three days before month-end, Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan-II has enjoyed a fantastic run at the box office, accumulating Rs 209 crore to comfortably finish at the top of April’s list of releases.
The historical Tamil film that combines action and adventure has thrived on a strong plot and the star power of the likes of Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to join Pathaan (Rs 646 crore) and Varisu (Rs 212 crore) at the top of the charts for 2023. In fact, once May’s figures are taken into consideration, PS-II is virtually guaranteed to leapfrog Varisu, although catching Pathaan seems unlikely.
April’s Bollywood biggie, Salman Khan-starrer Kiski Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, has fared reasonably well without creating eye-popping numbers since its release on April 21. Its collection of Rs 124 crore in April puts the film in second place for the month, well ahead of Telugu horror mystery Virupaksha, which brought in Rs 68 crore. Rounding off the top five for April are Hollywood’s Evil Dead Rise (Rs 39 crore) and Telugu action thriller Ravanasura (Rs 18 crore).
2023 needs to get its act together
After a stellar January, mostly due to the extraordinary success of Shah Rukh Khan-led Pathaan, 2023 is struggling to get going at the box office. April is the third consecutive month that has failed to cross Rs 700 crore in terms of overall collection. At its current rate, 2023 will only end up assimilating Rs 9,210 crore, which is 13 per cent less than 2022, which closed out with an impressive Rs 10,637 crore.
In terms of the box office language share, PS-II has bumped up Tamil’s part of the pie, increasing it by three per cent from March to 22 per cent. Telugu is still marginally ahead of Tamil with 23 per cent, while Hindi leads with 38 per cent, three per cent less than what it was last month.
