Fewer films, higher revenue? The math behind Telugu cinema’s 2025 earnings—and why it’s not all good news

For South Indian cinema as a whole, the combined share has been sliding. In 2023, it stood at 48% of the national box office. By 2024, that figure had dropped to 44%. The gap reflects both a revival of interest in Hindi films, partly driven by dubbed South Indian blockbusters, and Malayalam’s surge eating into the broader “South” share rather than expanding it.

Who earned the most

In 2024, the Telugu box office crossed Rs 2,348 crore in total collections, according to Goparaju. Of that, the top 10 Telugu films alone accounted for Rs 1,646 crore, which works out to roughly 70% of the industry’s entire earnings concentrated in just ten titles. That level of concentration should worry anyone producing outside that top tier.

The films driving those numbers in 2024 read like a familiar list of large-scale, star-driven productions: Pushpa 2, Kalki 2898 AD, Devara Part 1, Hanu-Man, Guntur Kaaram, Tillu Square, the Telugu dub of Amaran, Lucky Bhaskar, and Na Sammi Ranga.

In 2025, the top-10 concentration remained significant but fell to 52%, suggesting a slight broadening of earnings — though Goparaju notes that footfall dropped by 16% compared to 2024. The box office held up largely because ticket prices went up, not because more people came to watch. Few films among top 10 of 2025 include They Call Him OG, Hari Hara Veera Mallu, Sankranthi ki Vastunam, etc.

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The ticket price illusion

The numbers that keep Telugu cinema looking stable mask a new problem. Average gross per film was Rs 7.55 crore in 2024. In 2025, it rose to Rs 8.43 crore. That increase looks like growth. But it isn’t really. It is the arithmetic of fewer people paying more per seat. Higher average ticket prices helped offset declining footfalls across Indian cinema broadly, and Telugu is no exception.

Where the small films disappear

The concentration of box office earnings at the top has a direct casualty: the mid-budget and small-budget film. Pavan Goparaju described a situation where producers at that level are already cutting corners on theatrical returns, partly because footfall is low and partly because OTT platforms pick films up fast enough that theatrical exclusivity feels less valuable than it once did.

When revenue looks uncertain, the first thing to go is the promotion budget. He pointed out that smaller producers are scaling back marketing spend, which means audiences often never hear about these films at all. A film nobody knows about rarely recovers its investment in theatres, which in turn reinforces the belief that small films don’t work theatrically.

The cost of screening a film

The financial architecture that sits between a finished film and its audience is more expensive than most viewers realise. “Virtual Print Fee, the per-screen weekly charge that distributors pay to screen a digital print, runs between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,500 per theatre per week in the current market. That number adds up quickly across a multi-city release. Once a film makes it to the screen, exhibitors take between 45% and 55% of gross revenue as their share. The remaining portion flows back toward distributors and producers, already affected by VPF costs.” he explained.

OTT: The other window

Pavan Goparaju also shed some light on the OTT pay-per-view model, which has become increasingly relevant for films that don’t find large theatrical audiences. Platforms pay roughly Rs 3 to Rs 6 per view, depending on the platform and the title.

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At the higher end of that range, the earnings can be substantial. Goparaju cited the case of one Telugu film which earned over Rs 12 crore on a single platform through pay-per-view. “Something that failed in cinemas found a second life on streaming, and a profitable one.” he added.