Kanguva

 2024 witnessed a spell on Kollywood as they saw the biggest flops of the year from their industry.

While we got to see films like Amaran, Maharaja, and Meiyazhagan, which not only won hearts but also did good box office numbers, Kollywood was proven to be one of the most disappointing industries last year.

As per the reports, nearly ₹3,000 crore was spent on making films by Tamil film producers in 2024, but producers and distributors encountered an overall loss of around ₹1,000 crore.

Indian 2

 241 films were released last year, out of which only about 18 films were successful at the box office and 223 failed. A film industry that has given us some legendary filmmakers, actors, and memorable films, what went wrong with Kollywood in 2024?

Was it their loud and outdated content that failed to resonate with the audiences or just the lack of their understanding and evolving with time?

The first reason why producers failed to get their money back is the fact that they invested in numerous big-budget films—with stars like Suriya, Kamala Haasan, and Rajinikanth all turning out to be box office disasters.
For instance, Suriya's first pan-Indian film, Kanguva, which was so hyped up for its music and storytelling with actors across the industries with a budget of ₹350 crore, the team was hoping the film would collect ₹1,000 crore at the box office on release.

But the film had its own destiny and managed to make just a shocking ₹106 crore and was brutally trolled and based on its jarring loud music.

Vettaiyan

 Talking about one of the most expected sequels for a 28-year-old film that no one ever asked for was Shankar's dream project, titled Indian 2. The film was made on a budget of ₹250 crore, but it barely collected ₹150 crore at the box office.

Superstar Rajinikanth was joining hands with Shehansha of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan. After 33 years, the film had a stellar cast from Rana Daggubati to Fahadh Faasil and amazing music by Anirudh, but despite all the hype, Vettaiyan barely managed to entertain the audiences.

The audience rejected these films, sending Kollywood into a tizzy.

Though big-budget films flopped, films like Garudan, Lubber Pandhu, DeMonte Colony 2, and Vaazhai worked well at the box office.

The Tamil audiences, who are known to do God worship of their stars, no longer seem to be star-struck.

Tamil audiences showed a drastic change in terms of their preferences as Shankar's Game Changers Tamil version earned around just ₹10 crore at the box office, turning the film into a failure.

But two much smaller Tamil films—Madha Gaja Raja and Kudumbasthan—turned out to be major hits in January 2025, grossing more than ₹70 crore and ₹10 crore, respectively.

This proves that good stories remain the priority for the Tamil audience at this point.

2025 seems to have some new and big Tamil films, with Ajith Kumar's Vidaamuyarchi and Good Bad Ugly, Rajinikanth's Coolie, Kamal Haasan's Thug Life, and Suriya's Retro all-star hero films expected to do well at the box office.

Overall, 2024 was a big, challenging year for Tamil cinema, but the film industry is expecting to bounce back in 2025 with a bigger hit ratio and bigger hit films and win over audiences' hearts all over again.