The Indian theatrical business has seen two challenging years, in 2020 and 2021. After record box office performance in 2019, when the cumulative gross box office across languages crossed the ₹10,000 Crore mark for the first time ever, the pandemic and the associated lockdowns saw drops of more than 85% (2020) and 65% (2021) respectively, vis-à-vis the 2019 level.

At the start of 2022, there was widespread scepticism on whether the theatrical medium will be able to regain its glory, especially in wake of the rapid growth of streaming platforms in the pandemic years. Theatres being shut in most parts of India in January 2022, because of the third wave, meant that the year had a poor start, with January contributing a paltry ₹168 Crore.

But since then, things have looked progressively better, and 2022 has shaped up to be a great year at the Indian box office, second only to 2019. At ₹10,637 Crore, it finished only a fraction behind 2019, despite the January disadvantage.

Even as the Hindi film industry struggled to recover to the pre-pandemic levels, successful films from the Southern industries, especially Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, fuelled the growth. Our 2022 box office report, titled India Is Back… At The Theatres, in partnership with Group M, highlights this growth story.

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