The first half of the year continued from where we left in 2022 with most films biting the dust. PATHAAN hit it out of the park with record numbers edging past BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION though in GROSS terms the Prabhas-starrer remains ahead. PATHAAN saw Shah Rukh Khan in the action genre which should have happened 10-15 years ago as a lot of his non performers were down to genre not being correct at the time of release for such a big star.

THE KERALA STORY was the surprise of the first six months as it racked up huge numbers for what the actual film as worth and the collections were more organic than last year's THE KASHMIR FILES which was on similar lines. Both these films are very low cost films with huge returns and are compared to biggest low cost film ever JAI SANTOSHI MAA (1975). But the box office success of these films is a notch lower as the reach is less than that film. 

ZARA HATKE ZARA BACHKE was another big HIT and it is actually the most important film of the year as it is basically the bread and butter type film for the industry and it can still work. The film shows the audience profile has changed from upper middle/middle class to lower middle/middle class as nothing else in this zone has worked. But generally those films were more like pre pandemic aiming at the upper middle/middle classes. This film scored strongly in A centres of the Hindi belts pushing the box office over 80 crore nett with the help of super hit music.

The other moderate successes were TU JHOOTHI MAIN MAKKAAR and SATYAPREM KI KATHA but today even moderate is good. Actually today even a FLOP tag is pretty respectable as its one disaster after another. TU JHOOTHI MAIN MAKKAAR had a lot going for it with a strong cast and good music. As the film had a story and milieu which was very urban, the reach got limited and that reflects in collections. SATYAPREM KI KATHA is another film which has done well for what its worth. The film did not have much going for it and its managed a decent run till date and should end up around that 70 crore nett mark or near. The AVERAGE mark is disappointing for TU JHOOTHI MAIN MAKKAAR but you take it for SATYAPREM KI KATHA.

Last year there was support from the South with KGF: CHAPTER 2 and RRR but so far there has been nothing this year. Hollywood had some successful films with JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 being the surprise with collections of 50 crore nett. FAST X did a bigger number but expectations were also much higher.

There are flop theatrical films put in the list but as mentioned above, a flop is not bad as most films are disasters at the ticket counters today. The classifications of the first half of 2023 is as follows.

Pathaan

The Kerala Story

-

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke

John Wick: Chapter 4 (Hollywood)

Fast X (Hollywood)

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Hollywood)

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar

Satyaprem Ki Katha

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (Hollywood)

Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway

Ponniyin Selvan - Part 2 (South)

Adipurush

Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan

Bholaa