{"id":18303,"date":"2025-07-24T10:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T10:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18303\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T10:35:18","slug":"mollywood-box-office-trend-fewer-blockbusters-but-experimental-nostalgia-flicks-find-takers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18303\/","title":{"rendered":"Mollywood box office trend: Fewer blockbusters, but experimental, nostalgia flicks find takers"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the high of 2024, which saw several blockbusters, Mollywood was expected to ride on the success wave and set the box office ringing this year too. Films like ‘Bazooka’, ‘Identity’, ‘Empuraan’, and ‘Dominic and the Ladies Purse’ were expected to generate significant buzz in theatres. <\/p>\n

But trade analysts picture a different reality.\u00a0While Mollywood has delivered some quality content and even boasts of a few records, the industry \u2014 which had churned out back-to-back hits like ‘Manjummel Boys’, ‘Aavesham’ and ‘Premalu’ in early 2024 \u2014 has not been able to sustain the same hype this year.<\/p>\n

Only Mohanlal\u2019s films ‘Thudarum’ (\u20b9118.6 crore) and ‘L2: Empuraan’ (\u20b997.34 crore) managed to cross the \u20b950-crore mark. In comparison, during the first half of 2024, ‘Manjummel Boys’ collected over \u20b9130 crore, ‘Premalu’ \u20b958.56 crore, and ‘Aavesham’ \u20b985.16 crore \u2014 as per trade tracker Sacnilk’s Malayalam Net collection figures.<\/p>\n

Though there have been fewer blockbusters this year, mystery thrillers and police procedurals such as Kunchacko Boban\u2019s ‘Officer on Duty’ and Asif Ali\u2013Anaswara Rajan-starrer ‘Rekhachithram’ raked in decent numbers. The Tovino Thomas’ ‘Narivetta’ collected \u20b918.46 crore since its release in May, while Dileep\u2019s ‘Prince and Family’ earned \u20b917.15 crore,\u00a0Sacnilk data reveals.<\/p>\n

\"thudarum-poster\"<\/p>\n

\t \tThe surprise hit of 2025 turned out to be ‘Thudarum’, directed by Tharun Moorthy. Photo: X<\/p>\n

In 2024, over three films \u2014 Vineeth Sreenivasan’s ‘Varshangalkku Sesham’, Vipin Das\u2019 ‘Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil’ and Midhun Manuel Thomas\u2019 ‘Turbo’ \u2014 had each crossed \u20b930 crore at the box office.<\/p>\n

Increased interest in quirky content
According to Sacnilk, there is a growing interest in films with quirky or offbeat narratives. For instance, ‘Maranamass’, featuring Rajesh Madhavan and Basil Joseph, managed to collect over \u20b918 crore. This chaotic, dark comedy revolves around a serial killer and a group of eccentric characters. Another notable success was ‘Padakkalam’, directed by Manu Swaraj \u2014 a fantasy film that also resonated well with audiences.<\/p>\n

\"Mammootty<\/p>\n

\t \tMammootty and Gokul in ‘Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse’. Photo: Imdb<\/p>\n

Highly anticipated films fall short
The first Malayalam release of 2025 was ‘Identity’, starring Tovino Thomas and Trisha. With its high budget and impressive cast, the film was one of the most anticipated projects of the year. Directed by debutant Akhil Paul, it received praise for its technical brilliance and action choreography but drew criticism for its convoluted plot twists. Similarly, ‘Dominic and the Ladies\u2019 Purse’ \u2014 Gautham Menon\u2019s Malayalam directorial debut featuring Mammootty \u2014 failed to live up to expectations and grossed only \u20b99.37 crore.<\/p>\n

‘Lovely’, starring Mathew Thomas and centred around a housefly, generated curiosity pre-release but failed to sustain viewer interest, collecting just \u20b960 lakh, as per Malayalam Net Total figures.<\/p>\n

\"'Moonwalk'<\/p>\n

\t \t‘Moonwalk’ poster. Photo: Imdb<\/p>\n

Quality films fail to attract audiences
Despite the presence of content-driven films like ‘Moonwalk’, ‘Narayaneente Moonanmakkal’ and ‘Ouseppinte Osiyathu’, they struggled at the box office. However, these films gained traction after their release on OTT platforms, drawing appreciation for their themes and performances.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia as a key factor
While ‘Empuraan’, directed by Prithviraj and headlined by Mohanlal, was billed as the biggest Malayalam release of 2025, the surprise hit turned out to be ‘Thudarum’, directed by Tharun Moorthy. It went on to gross more than ‘Empuraan’. Many attribute this unexpected success to the film\u2019s strong nostalgia factor, which appears to have struck a chord with audiences across all age groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the high of 2024, which saw several blockbusters, Mollywood was expected to ride on the success wave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19638,64,63,5604,14890,19656,19649,19636,134,361,19658,19645,13096,389,19660,19659,19655,19650,362,19637,19647,9710,19635,19651,344,19652,19642,19640,19653,19648,19639,19643,19657,19641,9719,9718,19654,19646,19644],"class_list":["post-18303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-aavesham","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-box-office","tag-box-office-collections","tag-dileep","tag-dominic-and-the-ladies-purse","tag-empuraan","tag-entertainment","tag-film-industry","tag-film-review","tag-guruvayoor-ambalanadayil","tag-identity","tag-indian-cinema","tag-indian-movies","tag-kerala-films","tag-kunchacko-boban","tag-lovely","tag-malayalam-cinema","tag-manjummel-boys","tag-maranamass","tag-mohanlal","tag-mollywood","tag-moonwalk","tag-movies","tag-narayaneente-moonanmakkal","tag-narivetta","tag-officer-on-duty","tag-ouseppinte-osiyathu","tag-padakkalam","tag-premalu","tag-prince-and-family","tag-prithviraj","tag-rekhachithram","tag-tharun-moorthy","tag-thudarum","tag-tovino-thomas","tag-turbo","tag-varshangalkku-sesham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}