Indian Box-Office Crosses Historic ₹13,000 Crore as Bollywood Hits Record ₹5,504 Crore, But How Did Other Industries Fare in 2025?

None of the box-office projections for 2025 foresaw what the year would ultimately deliver: Indian box-office history rewritten as long-held benchmarks were shattered to emerge as the industry’s highest-grossing year ever. The surge was powered by blockbuster runs from homegrown tentpoles such as Dhurandhar, Kantara: Chapter 1 and Chhaava, alongside Hollywood heavyweights including Avatar: Fire and Ash and F1.

The Ormax box-office report for the year underscored several defining trends, chief among them Hindi cinema clocking its best-ever performance in 2025. The industry surpassed the towering benchmark set in 2023—driven by Shah Rukh Khan’s historic comeback—to command 41 per cent of the total box-office share, the highest contribution by any single film industry.

Malayalam cinema also sustained its momentum beyond critical acclaim, clocking in a consecutive ₹1,000 crore-plus gross in 2025.

The report further flagged a steady rise in average ticket prices (ATP) across all Indian film industries, even as footfalls declined across markets. What follows is a detailed numerical breakdown of how the year unfolded at the box office.

Indian Box-Office

With a gross box office of ₹13,395 crore, 2025 became the first-ever year to cross the ₹13,000 crore mark at the Indian box-office, surpassing the record held by 2023 (₹12,226 crore), the report stated. 2025 also marked the fifth year to surpass the ₹10,000 crore mark, following 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The surge was not just about a handful of tentpoles either. As many as 37 films crossed the ₹100 crore milestone, a sharp jump from 22 in 2024.

At the heart of that growth was Hindi cinema’s strongest-ever showing. Bollywood films clocked a record ₹5,504 crore, its highest annual gross to date, and did so on the back of original Hindi-language films. In a telling shift, 93 per cent of Hindi box-office collections came from original Hindi language releases, with reliance on dubbed South Indian films dropping dramatically — from 31 per cent in 2024 to just 7 per cent in 2025.

Leading the charge was Dhurandhar, which emerged as the year’s highest-grossing title at ₹950 crore, setting a new benchmark as the highest-grossing Hindi-language film of all time, comfortably surpassing Stree 2 (₹698 crore).

In fact, Dhurandhar, Kantara A Legend: Chapter 1 and Chhaava were the only films to surpass the ₹500 crore mark at the Indian box-office. Saiyaara, Coolie and the multi-lingual animated film Mahavatar Narsimha were the other three films to gross above ₹300 crore.

What Were The Box-Office Contributions of Each Industry?

In terms of percentage, Hindi cinema’s share remained steady, while the combined share of the four South languages witnessed a four percentage-point drop in comparison to 2024 (48 per cent to 44 per cent), Ormax noted.

Hindi cinema was the dominant contributor, accounting for 41 per cent of the total box office share in 2025, followed by Telugu cinema with an 18 per cent share. Tamil cinema contributed 13 per cent, while International films, including all language versions, made up 10 per cent of the box-office. Malayalam cinema held a 9 per cent share, while Kannada films accounted for 4 per cent.

In terms of gross box office, Hindi cinema remained the industry’s anchor, growing from ₹4,679 crore in 2024 to ₹5,504 crore in 2025, an 18 per cent rise. Its market share also inched up from 40 per cent to 41 per cent when compared to 2024.

The second spot was bagged by the Telugu film industry, which saw a marginal growth—from ₹2,348 crore to ₹2,377 crore (1 per cent)—in 2025, but its market share dipped from 20 per cent to 18 per cent, indicating relative saturation after several blockbuster-heavy years.

Tamil cinema, meanwhile, registered a slight contraction, recording a gross of ₹1,805 crore in 2025, which was less than what it did in 2024 (₹1,829 crore). Its box-office contribution share also fell from 15 per cent to 13 per cent last year.

The most striking gain came from international films, which surged 49 per cent in 2025 to record a gross of a whopping ₹1,403 crore in India, taking the fourth spot.

The fifth spot was bagged by the Malayalam film industry. After witnessing a steep 104 per cent growth in 2024, Malayalam cinema managed to register the same number in 2025, confirming that 2024 was not an aberration and can be called a watershed year for the Malayalam film industry, the report noted. The gross collection stood at ₹1,1164 crore.

Kannada cinema also posted strong growth, jumping 73 per cent to put up an annual gross of ₹528 crore, with its share rising from 3 per cent to 4 per cent, signalling renewed momentum after a relatively subdued 2024.

Driven by Laalo: Krishna Sada Sahaayate (₹114 Cr), which became the highest-grossing Gujarati film of all-time, Gujarati cinema witnessed a staggering 189 per cent growth, from ₹84 Cr in 2024 to ₹242 Cr in 2025.

On the flip side, Punjabi (₹116 crore gross) and Marathi (₹96 crore gross) cinema saw the steepest declines, dropping 43 per cent and 46 per cent respectively, with both languages losing box-office share year-on-year. Additionally, Assamese film Roi Roi Binale grossed ₹42 crore, contributing single-handedly to the 131 per cent growth for ‘Others’.

Rising Ticket Prices, Dwindling Footfalls

Despite the revenue highs, footfalls told a more cautious story. The year 2025 recorded an overall 83.2 crore admissions, a 6 per cent decline from 2024, reinforcing the industry’s increasing dependence on the box office driven by rising Average Ticket Prices (ATP) in recent years.

In terms of industry-specific footfalls, only Hindi and Kannada recorded growth. Hindi cinema’s footfalls grew by 11 per cent in 2025, with over 25 crore admissions (but lesser than 2023's footfall, which stood at 27.5 crore). Despite the growth in 2025, they continued to be significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels of more than 30 crore.

In terms of the Kannada industry, footfalls saw a steep increase of 35 per cent in 2025, rising above the 3.5 crore mark, but still less than half the 2022 (K.G.F: Chapter 2 and Kantara) level.

According to the report, footfalls in Telugu cinema continued to see a decline for the second consecutive year, underlining that the increase in ATP, especially of tentpole films, was the driver for sustained box office collections for Telugu cinema in 2025. The total footfall for the industry stood at 18.1 crore.

Footfalls in Tamil cinema witnessed a sharp decline of more than 15 per cent, with 2025 recording the lowest footfalls (16 crore) for the Tamil film industry since 2016, excluding the two pandemic-affected years. Even Malayalam cinema saw a decline in footfalls, recording 10 crore admissions, which was less than what it did in 2024 (12.6 crore).

Meanwhile, the average ticket price jumped 20 per cent—from ₹134 to ₹161 all India, its steepest increase in four years. The shift was driven by a higher box office share for Hindi and International films—traditionally higher-ATP segments—alongside elevated ticket pricing for several big-ticket South Indian releases.

The highest ATP was led by Hollywood titles (at ₹267), followed by Hindi at ₹215. The ATP for South Indian languages stood at ₹123.