Franchise films in Hindi cinema are no longer a guaranteed box office draw, it seems. Audiences are increasingly prioritising content over familiarity, according to a new insight by Ormax Media, which highlights a sharp demand-side correction in 2025 after a peak in franchise performance the previous year. Of course, this doesn’t take into account exceptions — as in every rule.

The report notes that franchise films accounted for 50 percent of the Hindi domestic box office in 2024, driven by 11 titles, but their share fell significantly to 33 percent in 2025 despite a higher number of releases. This decline, the analysis says, signals that audiences are no longer responding automatically to known intellectual property (IP), and are instead making more selective, content-driven choices. (https://www.ormaxmedia.com/insights/stories/content-over-familiarity-the-franchise-reality-check.html)

In the post-pandemic phase, the industry had leaned heavily into franchises as a “safer” strategy, banking on recall value and pre-existing audience equity. This approach led to a steady rise in franchise contribution—from 19 percent in 2019 to 37 percent in 2023—before peaking in 2024.

However, 2025 disrupted this trajectory, showing that scaling up franchise volume does not necessarily translate into proportional box office success.

The underperformance of several franchise titles in 2025, despite strong supply, underscores what Ormax describes as a “demand-side correction”.

Audiences, the report argues, have moved beyond familiarity as the primary decision driver, evaluating films on execution, novelty, and storytelling strength rather than brand recall alone. This shift exposes a key misreading by the industry, which had treated earlier franchise successes as a structural trend rather than film-specific outcomes.

“Ironically, the film that’s a chief contributor to this trend reversal may also be reason why 2026 looks more franchise-skewed,” the analyses stated, adding, “The success of ‘Dhurandhar’, a non-franchise film in 2025, paved way for the record-breaking success of ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, a franchise film, in 2026. This irony reinforces the ‘content over formula’ argument made above.”

Franchise Relevance Not Completely Lost: At the same time, the analysis clarifies that franchises have not lost relevance entirely. They continue to dominate the top tier of the box office, with six of the top 10 Hindi films in 2025 being franchise titles.

Films backed by established IP also tend to secure stronger and more stable opening-day collections, indicating that familiarity still plays a role in driving initial footfalls, even if it no longer guarantees sustained success.

The broader box office environment further reflects this evolving dynamic. While franchise titles such as ‘De De Pyaar De 2’ contributed to monthly tallies in 2025, overall performance varied widely, with audiences also rewarding diverse, non-franchise content across genres.

Similarly, in early 2026, films like ‘O’Romeo’ and ‘Thaai Kizhavi’ emerged as top performers in a weak market, indicating that success is increasingly tied to individual film appeal rather than franchise lineage.

The report concludes that the way forward for the industry lies in balance: combining strong original films with selectively developed franchises. Rather than relying on familiarity as a formula, studios will need to invest in compelling storytelling and differentiated execution to sustain box office growth and build long-term IP value. (Both image and chart courtesy Ormax Media)