Here’s a report on how Malayalam movies fared at the box office in 2022, not in general or on OTT platforms. Check out the list of movies that grossed in excess of ₹10cr in theatres — and think about the movies that you’ve heard about, or watched and liked in the last year. I contend that the two lists are unlikely to be the same — do comment to let me know if they are.
Personally, I’ve watched no Malayalam movie in a theatre last year, but have watched several on OTT, including two of the listed biggies. My primary motivation to watch a movie on the big screen is spectacle, and from the list, I would’ve loved to watch “Beeshmaparvam” in a theatre. For everything else, my home theatre is good enough — movie tickets in Bangalore are bloody expensive sometimes. And about the popcorn, the lesser said the better! I love to feel smug at the thousands of rupees I save by making my own cheese popcorn at home 
.
[Message me if you want to set up an inexpensive home theatre for less than the price of a fancy TV. I’ll throw in the popcorn recipe as well, for free.]
Back to the story. It appears, once again, that big-screen success is indeed star-driven spectacle, barring the oddball hits that work purely for their content. Meanwhile, content continues to drive the OTT success of ‘flops’. The financial success of a film, of course, is whether a film recovered its costs and made a profit overall, and doesn’t depend solely on box-office success.
The formula then, is to continue to invest wisely in production, because recovering more than ₹10cr through the box-office is as tough as it looks. The magic figure then lies in the mid-to-low crores for producers. And content, content, content.
Shameless plug: If you are a producer looking to invest in good Malayalam content that can be filmed for ₹5cr or lesser, I’m your guy. Don’t waste time, just message me! 
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