The year 2022 has been a mixed bag for Kollywood. While a host of Tamil movies made it big at the box office, some of them failed to live up to the hype, despite the presence of stars.
Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan-1 (PS-1), starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Vikram, Karthi and Sobhita Dhulipala in the main roles, hit the theatres on 30 September 2022.
Kalki Krishnamurthy wrote this epic historical fiction on the succession battle in the Chola empire.
Made with a budget of ₹500 crore (including part 2), the movie reportedly collected a gross of ₹500 crore worldwide and became the highest-grossing Tamil film in 2022.
In Tamil, it is the biggest-ever film that overcame not only 2.0 but also Vikram (₹372 crore) by approximately ₹50 crore.
It did business worth ₹221.80 crore in Tamil Nadu, surpassing Vikram’s record by a massive 20 percent margin.
Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’. (MadrasTalkies_/Twitter)
• Tamil Nadu: ₹221.80 crore
• AP/TS: ₹23.70 crore
• Karnataka: ₹27.20 crore
• Kerala: ₹24.30 crore
• Other States/UTs In India: ₹29.50 crore
• Total: ₹326.50 crore
Overseas box-office collection
• North America: $6.80 million
• Middle East: $4.20 million
• Malaysia: $2.70 million
• Singapore: $1.60 million
• Australia/New Zealand: $1.25 million
• UK: $1.50 million
• France: $0.65 million
• Europe: $1.20 million
• Other countries across the world: $0.80 million
• Overseas: $20.70 million/₹169 crore
• Worldwide: ₹495.50 crore
Vikram
Vikram, the second-highestbox office grosser of the year, was a comeback film for Kamal Haasan. Teaming up with Lokesh Kanagaraj, the action thriller was a tale of Agent Vikram on the trail of a drug syndicate.
Fahadh Faasil from Kerala and Vijay Sethupati were part of the star cast and Suriya appeared in the role of Rolex, a cameo, towards the climax.
Kamal Haasan’s ‘Vikram’. (ikamalhaasan/Twitter)
Anirudh’s pulsating music and Girish’s camerawork added to the film’s technical brilliance. It was made with around ₹160 crore.
Vikram collected a whopping ₹184 crore in gross in Tamil Nadu and gave ₹93 crore in shares to the distributor – Red Giant Movies. The film was hugely profitable in Tamil Nadu.
This was followed by an outstanding performance in Kerala: ₹40 crore in gross collections and ₹17 crore in shares, all thanks to Fahadh Faasil.
The movie also recorded outstanding numbers in Karnataka with ₹25 crore in gross and₹12 crore in distributor shares.
The collections in the Telugu states did not disappoint either: ₹34 crores in gross and₹18 crore in share collections.
Vikram’s Hindi print collected ₹18 crore in gross and₹8 crore in shares in the rest of India.
Vikram garnered a mind-blowing ₹125 crore in gross collections overseas. This translates to about ₹59 crore in distributor shares, which also raked in massive profits for the US distributors.
Overall, the worldwide closing collections of the film were recorded at ₹426 crore in gross and ₹207 crore in shares.
Beast
Thalapathy Vijay-starrer Beast ended its run at the box office with approximately ₹169 crore in India and ₹237 crore worldwide.
The film registered big numbers for a Kollywood movie. But then, it ended up being the lowest-grossing movie in Vijay’s career since Mersal (2017), thanks to the mixed reviews and the competition from KGF 2.
Vijay Thalapathy’s ‘Beast’. (actorvijay/Twitter)
Since 2017, Vijay’s every release surpassed the previous one, a streak that ceased with Beast, directed by Nelson. The film is the fifth-highest grosser ever for Vijay in both India and worldwide.
Released on 13 April, the movie dealt with an ex-RAW operative who rescues people held hostage by terrorists in a shopping mall.
It had set the new opening record in the State by beating the four-year-old record of Sarkar, yet another Vijay-starrer. But the opening trend was short-lived!
The film registered huge numbers in the opening weekendsbut recorded a sharp decline, eventually closing at ₹120 crore in the state, becoming the seventh top grosser at the Tamil Nadu box office.
The film also had a huge opening outside Tamil Nadu but dropped heavily with the release of KGF 2 on the second day.
The final numbers were quite fair in AP/TS with nearly ₹20 crore and Karnataka with ₹15 crore but Kerala was disappointing.
Internationally, the film grossed $8.85 million after earninga weekend collection of $7.50 million. The Middle Eastcollections took a huge blow as the film was hit by bad reception.
Valimai
Ajith Kumar’s ‘Valimai’. (Twitter)
Ajith-starrer Valimai, the third venture from H Vinoth, was made with a budget of ₹150 crore. According to producer Boney Kapoor, the film grossed over ₹200 crore at the box office.
The movie reportedly grossed around ₹225 crore worldwide. the Tamil Nadu collection has been put at around ₹100 crore.
Several distributors and theatre owners declared Valimai as a profitable venture for them. Meanwhile, the high expectations from fans made it easily achieve a huge mark.
Ajith played the role of a cop in the flick which had several high-octane action sequences with bikes. Shah’s cinematography did justice to the scenes.
Love Today
Director Pradeep Ranganathan, who also played the lead in Love Today, set the box office on fire. Set in today’s generation, The love story’s collections caught the trade unawares.
The movie turned out to be a great success in terms of return on investment. Made with a simple budget of ₹5-6 crore, it went on to collect over ₹90 crore.
Pradeep Ranganathan’s ‘Love Today’. (pradeepoonelife/Twitter)
As per the box-office tracker Sacnilk.com, Love Today collected ₹82.52 crore at the box office worldwide, so far.
Following its grand success, the makers recently released the Telugu and Hindi versions of the movie which were hits.
So far, the dubbed Telugu version made profits worth ₹4 crore, thus emerging as a double blockbuster in Telugu states.
As per the Tollywood box-office tracker T2BLive, the Telugu version of Love Today collected ₹13.37 crore in 12 days with distributor shares worth ₹6.90 crore.
It entered the profit zone crossing the ₹3 crore break-even point and collected a profit of ₹3.90 crore.
Actor-director Pradeep Ranganathan scored big through his witty dialogues and hilarious scenes. The attitude and outlook of modern-day lovers and the role that a smartphone plays in the day-to-day life of today’s youth connected well with the audiences.
Don
Sivakarthikeyan’s ‘Don’. (Siva_Kartikeyan/Twitter)
Sivakarthikeyan scored a blockbuster hit with Don, immediately after Doctor. Directed by Cibi Chakravarthi, the film was made with a budget of ₹50 crore and it collected a gross worth ₹76.5 crore in Tamil Nadu alone.
Further, the movie earned ₹88.83 crore gross in India and $3.18 million (₹24.73 crores) in the overseas market. Overall, it grossed ₹100 crore.
In Don, Sivakarthikeyan played a youngster who is yet to figure out what his passion is. He joins an engineering college where he clashes with a disciplinarian faculty member.
The highlight of the film is the clash between him and a strict college faculty member played by SJ Suryah.
Anirudh’s music and the on-screen chemistry between Sivakarthikeyan and Priyanka Mohan helped the movie get popularity.
Thiruchitrambalam
Dhanush’s ‘Thiruchitrambalam’. (dhanushkraja/Twitter)
Dhanush’s Thiruchitrambalam, made with a budget of ₹40 crore, collected a gross of ₹78.71 crore in Tamil Nadu and ₹106.05 crore worldwide. Thus, it became Dhanush’s highest-grossing film worldwide.
The story revolves around Thiruchitrambalam (Dhanush) aka Pazham, a food delivery guy, and his relationships with his grandfather (played by Bharathiraaja) and father Prakash Raj.
Nithya Menen plays his best friend-turned-wife. Her stunning performance and captivating scenes with Dhanush breathed life into the movie.
Mithran R Jawahar kept the viewers rooted through his commendable job as a director.
Sardar
Karthi’s ‘Sardar’. (Karthi_Offl/Twitter)
Karthi-starrer Sardar, made with ₹40 crore, collected a gross of ₹100 crore worldwide. It grossed ₹72.64 crore in Tamil Nadu and ₹11.35 crore in the Telugu states.
Directed byPS Mithran, Sardar features Karthi in a dual role: as an espionage agent who gets framed as a traitor and his police officer son. The actor’s splendid performance in the roles clicked big time.
Bollywood actor Chunky Panday appeared as an antagonist in this spy action thriller. Following its tremendous success, the makers announced a sequel to the flick.
