How Varisu, Thunivu, Waltair Veerayya and Veera Simha Reddy made Rs 700 crore at the box office this January

Thalapathy Vijay’s Varisu, Ajith Kumar’s Thunivu, Megastar Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya and Balakrishna’s Veera Simha Reddy were all blockbusters this Pongal / Sankranti. The South film industry is continuing to lead the way in 2023.

Ajith, Vijay, Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna had big film releases this January.

By Latha Srinivasan: Festival releases – especially Pongal /Sankranti and Diwali – are the biggest events in the south film industry. All the top stars try to have a film release during these times of the year because these are the most important festivals in south India.

This year, the Tamil film industry saw their two top stars – Vijay and Ajith Kumar, battle it out at the box office with their Pongal releases. Thalapathy’s Varisu has made around Rs 230 crore at the worldwide box office while Ajith’s Thunivu has made around Rs 170 crore so far.

Move to the Telugu film industry and we see Megastar Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya taking on Balakrishna’s (Balayya) Veera Simha Reddy. Waltair Veerayya has grossed more than Rs 170 crore worldwide while Veera Simha Reddy has grossed about Rs 125 crore.

The gross worldwide collection is estimated at Rs 700 crore now for these four films, which are still running to packed houses more than a week after their release.

READ I Thunivu Movie Review: Ajith Kumar as anti-hero is a treat to watch in this mediocre heist thriller

What happens when there is a big festival and there is a four or five-day extended holiday weekend? The audience needs entertainment and theatres are where they head to. This means brisk business for theatres and the long holiday ensures big bucks for films which release at that time.

In the south, there have always been big star releases during Pongal/Sankranti and Diwali and January 2023 was no exception. It is a tradition in the film industry to release big films and the producers of films with top stars in the industry vie for these dates.

READ I Varisu Movie Review: Thalapathy Vijay’s film is high on comedy and family sentiment

CONTENT IS KING

When you analyse what made Thunivu, Varisu, Waltair Veerayya and Veera Simha Reddy click at the box office in January 2023, the first obvious answer is that they all feature the top stars in their respective film industries. Second – and most importantly – is the stories they featured appealed to the mass audience. Stories that resonate not just with the youth but also with the family audience during a festival time when there are holidays, will make a movie click. And this is what the directors delivered for all these four films.

If Vijay’s Varisu was a family drama, Ajith’s film was about how banks were looting the public. Chiranjeevi’s film was an action film with a family theme, while Balayya’s movie was about how a son fulfills his father’s wish. Each of these films had hit songs as well thanks to their music directors.

READ I Veera Simha Reddy Movie Review: Balakrishna packs a punch in this template action entertainer

FANS TURN REPEAT AUDIENCE

Megastar Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Thalapathy Vijay and Ajith Kumar have scores of fans around the world and they tend to watch their hero’s films more than once. Not only do they catch it with their friends on the first day, first show, but they tend to go again with their families a few days later to watch the film. The repeat audience factor is very important in the case of the top stars.

Fan clubs of all these stars arrange special shows as well across towns and cities and this brings in the crowd in droves. If you check social media, it is the fans who post box office collections and rival actors’ fan groups try to outdo each other when it comes to the box office. In fact, we saw how Vijay fans and Ajith fans got into a ‘which film collected more worldwide’ debate recently on social media.

READ I Waltair Veerayya Movie Review: Megastar Chiranjeevi returns to form with mass entertainer

At the end of the day, the fact is that these four films made nearly Rs 700 crore gross at the box office worldwide. This shows South Indian films have started 2023 with a bang and with more big releases to come, like Prashanth Neel’s Salaar and Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan 2, this trend is set to become bigger.