Half Year Report – Malayalam Movies 2014
2014, till now has been a quiet disappointing period for Malayalam Cinema as more than 90% of the movies bit the dust. The major blow came from the Superstars, Mammootty and Mohanlal (Drishyam, was an exception but was a 2013 December release) who couldn’t make it in the box office in the first six months. After a release of 80 plus movies just 6 became profitable for its producers. Here are the things in detail.
Bangalore Days
Gross : 22.65 crores [42 Days*]
The only Blockbuster of the 1st half came in the form of the big multi-starrer of the youth brigade. Written and directed by Anjali Menon, one of the biggest names of current Malayalam cinema it had everything written all over it and just got better with its release. It started from where the last years all time blockbuster, Drishyam ended and has already become a part of industries biggest hits. If that’s not enough Bangalore Days is already the biggest if you just consider the Rest of India (Apart from Kerala). However, it is the producer Anwar Rasheed who is still busy counting the money.
Ohm Shanthi Oshaana
Gross : 10.15 crores
Released without any big hype or noise, OSO surprised one and all with an excellent opening and just got better with the talk. With a back- to back release within few days, this was Nivin Pauly‘s consecutive success in the box office. Although there was a strong presence of Nivin, this one truly belongs to Nazriya who was all in all for the movie. The same range of credit goes to both writer and director of the movie who made a dream debut. OSO finished within a budget of 3.25 Cr it gave its makers a profit which is double the budget when you include the rights also. The films surprisingly superb performance outside Kerala is also a factor for its Blockbuster tag.
Ring Master
Gross : 14.25 crores
Dileep plus Vishu has all the answers and it would be better to talk less about this combination. Ring Master, which opened average marched forward with the decent talk about the families and masses. The film also made use of the lack of any real competitor in the same genre. The film which had a whopping budget around 9.5 crores, got a satellite amount of around 5.5 crores
How Old Are You
Gross : 12.40 crores [65 Days*]
How Old Are You, the comeback of Manju Warrier to the big screen took a bumper opening in the box office and remained strong until it was hit by the Bangalore Days juggernaut. Still the film became the biggest earner for a women oriented flick.
7th Day
Gross : 9.75 crores
7th Day got a special attention from the audience before its release because of many reasons. The excellent promos, different avatar of Prithviraj, thriller mood are a few from that. The film which took the best opening for a solo flick of Prithviraj brought the profit to its producers from the theatricals itself. But if there is something to worry for the movie it would be the just miss of a special feet 10 crore.
1983
Gross : 7.2 crores
The year’s first Hit movie came in the form of 1983 and it was Nivin Pauly who opened the account for Malayalam movies in 2014 after a poor start. The film which had cricket as the main Plot was directed by debutant Abrid Shine. But the close release of OSO, another Nivin starrer, ate some business of 1983, which could have been done better with an encouraging talk.
Mr. Fraud
Gross : 6.71 crore
Fraud’s performance in theaters were just average, but the huge ancillary rights of the movie helped its producers to break-even. What helped the movie to get big rights were the ongoing Drishyam mania.
God’s Own Country
Gross : 3.5 crore
Gods Own Country, became break even category because of its moderate budget and okay performance in the box office. With a share above 1.5 crores and decent rights it just managed to reach its budget.
As like previous years there were a few dubbed films, mostly from Telugu. Among them only two films made the buyers happy. These were Allu Arjun – Ram Charan starrer ‘Bhaiyya – My Brother‘ (Yevadu) and another Allu starrer ’Lucky – The Racer‘ (Race Gurram). When ‘Bhaiyya – My Brother’ grossed around 1.80 crore, ‘Lucky – The Racer’ grossed around 1.50 crore.
From the Hollywood releases ‘300: The Rise Of An Empire’ and ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’ did a considerable business, once again with the help of multiplexes.
