Sci-fi film Kalki 2898 AD is India‘s highest-grossing film for the first half of 2024, contributing 15% of the overall box office this year, according to a report by Ormax Media.
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Prabhas, the film grossed $92.3M at the local box office.
For the first half of 2024, the Indian box office closed at just above the INR50B ($600M) gross mark, which is 3% higher than the same period in 2023.
June was the top-performing month for the box office, collecting more than $140M. The second-highest monthly collection came in March 2024.
After Kalki 2898 AD, the second-highest-grossing film is Hindi-language film Fighter, which grossed $29M locally, followed by the Telugu-language superhero film Hanu-Man.
In terms of language share in the Indian film industry, the report noted that Malayalam-language cinema was a significant mover. The share of Malayalam-language films has risen to 15%, compared to 5% in the same period in 2023. In the first half of 2024, Malayalam cinema has already grossed more than its entire collection for 2023.
The report noted that while Hindi-language films are still dominant, they experienced a small decrease in market share, falling from 37% to 35% compared to the same period last year. This was attributed to the absence of a big hit such as Pathaan from 2023.
The report expects that the box office in the second half of 2024 will perform better than the first half — similar to 2023, with a strong roster of films awaiting release like Pushpa 2: The Rule, Stree 2, Singham Again, The Greatest Of All Time and Devara.