Box Office: Did we lose our mid-budget movie audience after Fateh, Emergency, and Azaad failures?

The failures of Fateh, Emergency, and Azaad have raised a new question of whether we have lost our mid-budget movie audience.

Written by Mohit Dixit , Journalist

Updated on Jan 29, 2025 | 01:06 AM IST | 62.4K

Box Office: Have we lost mid-budget film audience after Fateh, Emergency & Azaad failures?

2025 opened on a low note for the Hindi film industry. The January releases Fateh, Emergency, and Azaad failed to perform at the box office, raising the critical question: Have we lost our mid-budget movie audience?

Not only the January 2025 releases, but it has been for the last few years now that audiences prefer a big-budget tentpole movie in cinemas, whereas they wait for small and mid-budget films to arrive on OTT. This shift can be seen as one of the major results of streaming blooms in India. But this scenario doesn't mean that small/mid-budget movies will not succeed in cinemas.

2024 is evident enough when certain mid-budget movies like Munjya, Crew, Srikanth, Article 370, Madgaon Express, and others found an audience and sailed through a successful trend at the box office. The 2023 release 12th Fail is another prominent example proving why we can remain hopeful about the upcoming mid-releases.

To be honest, it's just the content and marketing that act as the major driving force for the success of any such movies that don't have a star face. Fateh, Azaad, and Emergency couldn't impress the audience in the first place. All three of them received mixed to poor word-of-mouth, which curtailed their business to a major extent. I'm hopeful that the upcoming mid-budget releases will find an audience if they manage to receive a positive reception from both the critics and the audience.

Audiences are definitely peculiar these days when watching movies in cinemas, where they already have a buffet of varied content at their fingertips. The makers should focus on bringing something out of the box while being very cost-efficient. Regular kinds of cinema aren't favorable nowadays, whether a mid-budget or a heavy-budgeted tentpole movie. You need to have something extra on the platter to attract cine-goers.

All eyes are now on the performance of Badass Ravikumar. As per the current buzz, the Himesh Reshammiya movie is expected to sail through a successful run at the box office.

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