The Tamil film industry jumped back well after the pandemic, compared to the Bollywood film industry. 2022 was a great year thanks to the performance of films like Ponniyin Selvan - Part 1 and Vikram. Beast also put up huge numbers, though it underperformed later on. 2023, too, turned out to be an exceptional year for the South industry as the superstars once again pulled the audience to the cinemas.
In this special report, we shall take a look at the performance of the Tamil film industry in 2023. As many as two films crossed the Rs. 300 crore mark domestically (gross). Thalapathy Vijay-starrer Leo emerged as the biggest Tamil hit of the year. In its original Tamil version, it collected a huge Rs. 328 crores gross in India. The tremendous hype, positive word of mouth, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s association as a director and of course Vijay’s starry presence all contributed to these huge numbers.
This was followed by Rajinikanth’s Jailer, which collected Rs. 326 crores. The veteran star was loved in this film as a badass hero who teaches the goons a tough lesson. The hype for the film was also aided by Tamannaah Bhatia’s chartbuster song, ‘Kaavaalaa’.
Thalapathy Vijay’s other film of 2023, Varisu, ended up with collections of Rs. 174 crores. Ponniyin Selvan - Part 2 took the fourth position, earning Rs. 162 crores. The period drama’s first part was released in 2022 and was the biggest Tamil hit that year, collecting Rs. 265 crores gross. The numbers of the sequel prove that it didn’t enjoy an encouraging word of mouth, compared to the first part.
Ajith’s Thunivu, which incidentally clashed with Varisu, had collections amounting to Rs. 130 crores. These five Tamil films collected more than Rs. 100 crores plus in their original versions.
The collections of all Tamil films domestically in 2022 were Rs. 1,724 crores, the highest ever. The 2023 figure was even more at Rs. 1,961 crores.
Tamil Domestic Box Office Footfalls
2013 - 17.2 cr.
2014 - 14.1 cr.
2015 - 18.1 cr.
2016 – 14 cr.
2017 - 16.3 cr.
2018 - 16.8 cr.
2019 - 19.4 cr.
2020 - 4.8 cr.
2021 - 9.8 cr.
2022 – 20.5 cr.
2023 - 22 cr.
Tamil Domestic Box Office (In cr. gross)
2013 – 1,120 cr.
2014 – 932 cr.
2015 – 1,211 cr.
2016 - 996 cr.
2017 – 1,191 cr.
2018 – 1,283 cr.
2019 – 1,460 cr.
2020 - 324 cr.
2021 - 666 cr.
2022 – 1,724 cr.
2023 – 1,961 cr.
Tamil Top 10 Box Office 2023 (In cr. gross)
Leo – 328 cr.
Jailer – 326 cr.
Varisu – 174 cr.
Ponniyin Selvan - PS2 – 162 cr.
Thunivu – 130 cr.
Mark Antony – 79 cr.
Maamannan – 54 cr.
Maaveeran - 50 cr.
Vaathi – 48 cr.
Jigarthanda DoubleX – 44 cr.
Source: The Ormax Box Office report: 2023
