The Tamil box office in 2009
LINK
It looks like it is boom time in Kollywood as a record 131 films were released in 2009. This is the highest number of films released in a year for nearly two decades. Out of the 131 only 18 films got back their investment or were break even. Hit ratio has come down to 14 percent against 18 percent of 2008 and a peak of 24 percent in 2006.
Suriya’s Ayan the lone blockbuster is 2009’s biggest hit. The film was a universal hit in all areas and also topped audio sales. Superstar movies dominated the year with only Nadodigal emerging as a super hit among small and medium budget movies.
Here is the complete list of 18 films and their classification- Blockbuster, Super Hit, Hit, Above Average or Average. The list has been compiled from statistics provided by distributors, theatre owners and trade consultants.
The overall impact of a film across theatres in A, B, C stations in Tamil Nadu, domestic (Kerala, Karnataka and Telugu dubbing in some cases), Overseas, and revenues from Television, DVD, Audio rights. The hit factor has been determined by ROI (Return on Investment) for the trade.
Ayan – Blockbuster
Nadodigal- Super Hit
Padikathavan- Super Hit
Kanthaswamy- Hit
Aadhavan- Hit
Vettaikaran- Hit
Unnaipol Oruvan- Hit
Peranmai- Hit
Kanden Kadhalai- Hit
Yavarum Nalam- Hit
Pasanga- Above Average
Siva Manasulla Sakthi- Above Average
Masilamani- Above Average
Venila Kabadi Kuzhu- Average
Malai Malai- Average
Mayandi Kudumbathar- Average
Eeram- Average
Renigunta- Average
Biggest disappointments of 2009
It was a year of big-budget disasters for Kollywood as a total of over Rs 150 crore sank at the box office.
There was this eagerly awaited Vijay’s Prabhu Deva directed Villu, Bala’s epic disaster Naan Kadavul, Vishals’s Thoranai, Gandhi Krishna’s Ananthathandavam, a movie you probably wished you hadn’t seen, Vishnuvardhan’s Sarvvam which made you feel that the hugely talented director can also go wrong, Cheran’s Rs 10 Crore mothball Pokkisham, Jaganmohini which ended up as a tacky C grade special effects film, Sarath’s 1977, Vijaykanth’s great white hope Mariyadai and Ameer’s heavily hyped Yogi.
We now round up these culprits for this year-ender special.
Villu
Naan Kadavul
Sarvvam
Thoranai
Yogi
Pokkisham
Jaganmohini
1977
Ananthathandavam
Mariyadhai
December 31, 2009 at 12:57 AM
Here I thought Kanthasamy would be the year’s biggest. Surya’s really kicked ass lately.
And I was under the impression that Naan Kadavul did reasonably well.
December 31, 2009 at 1:09 AM
Kanthasamy is quite likely the biggest grosser of the year. I very much doubt Ayan grossed more than it. But this is a Sify list and like virtually all Tamil media in English there is an anti-Vikram bias. still they’ve called it a hit. Behindwoods won’t even give it this!
Naan Kadavul was certainly average/above average which for this sort of subject is like being a hit!
December 31, 2009 at 1:15 AM
With a kamal film or a Surya film they actually provide show listings for the US! It’s quite unbelievable how much they plug their films. With Unnaippol Oruvan they were hyperbolic over the opening and the final result when really this film has done nothing extraordinary in TN barring some high end centers.
For them to accept Kanthasamy as a hit means it was at least a superhit! and of course at the time we looked at some of the numbers and these were huge. In fact the numbers that they were claiming for UO and calling massive were outdone by their own prior figures on Kanthasamy.
My own sense is (and I’ve detected this online as well) that a pro-Kamal establishment in the high-brow sense was a bit disturbed by Vikram’s success and decided to look for other horses. Judging by this narrative (which is quite dominant in many quarters) Surya is very easily ahead of Vikram in addition to Vijay and Ajith!
On the latter two any reasonable Tamil film distributor would laugh his head off. Surya has had a great deal of success, no denying this but he’s just not playing masala at the same stratosphere.
December 31, 2009 at 4:49 AM
I thought UPO was super hit!
December 31, 2009 at 9:48 AM
not really.. it did very well in certain places or certain sorts of cinemas..
January 1, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Ayan definitely outgrossed Kanthasamy. It was a huge blockbuster. Kanthasamy opened huge but 2nd, 3rd week follow up was weak. It is a hit at best. It was reported mostly as above average.
February 24, 2010 at 2:52 PM
Re: “It looks like it is boom time in Kollywood as a record 131 films were released in 2009. This is the highest number of films released in a year for nearly two decades.”
Interesting — some other articles I’ve read in the past have said the Tamil industry produces roughly 200+ films a year, in the vicinity of the Hindi film industry. If this piece is right, the industry would in fact be smaller (although bigger on a pound-for-pound basis given the smaller audience for Tamil films than for Hindi ones)…
March 12, 2010 at 8:12 AM
eeram is good a movie in the year of 2009