After a strong July 2025, the Indian box office sustained momentum in August, grossing  Rs. 1,1136 crore, including projected future collections of August releases still running in theatres. ‘Coolie’, ‘War 2’ and ‘Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra’ were the major contributors, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the month’s total box office earnings between them, according to Ormax Media.

The cumulative box office for 2025 releases stands at Rs. 8,370 crore, which is 21 percent higher than the same period in 2024. Based on pro rata estimation, the year has a good chance of grossing more than Rs.12,000 crore, and is in the running to become the best-ever year at the Indian box office — a record currently held by 2023 (Rs.12,226 crore), an Ormax Media study of BO collections stated yesterday.

‘Coolie’ is the top film of the month, with gross box office of Rs.325 crore across languages, and is now the third-highest grosser of 2025, behind Hindi films ‘Chhaava’ and ‘Saiyaara’. ‘War 2’ follows ‘Coolie’, grossing Rs.283 crore at the domestic box office, with the Hindi version contributing more than 75 percent to the number.

Hindi and Malayalam releases dominate the list of the month’s Top 10 films, with four and three films, respectively. The list also features two Gujarati releases, ‘Vash Level 2’ and ‘Bachu Ni Benpani’, with the former earning about 50 percent of its box office from the Hindi dubbed version, aided by the success of Hindi remake (‘Shaitaan’) of the first film in the series.

 

With the addition of ‘War 2’, Hindi language now has six films in the list of 2025’s top 10 highest-grossing films, not counting the multi-lingual animated feature ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’.

For language share calculation, the language-wise box office of films releasing in multiple languages is assigned to the corresponding language. However, for Hollywood, the data for all languages is reported under the language head ‘Hollywood’.

Hindi continues to maintain 40 percent share of the India box office, in line with last year. The success of the Onam releases — ‘Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra’ and ‘Hridayapoorvam’ — has boosted Malayalam language’s share from 8 percent (Jan-Jul) to 10 percent (Jan-Aug), bringing it back to the 2024 level, which was the best-ever year for Malayalam cinema.

(Main image and charts courtesy Ormax Media)