Blockbusters of 2025 so far are Good Bad Ugly, Tourist Family, Dragon, Madha Gaja Raja, Maaman, and Kudumbasthan; among big flops are Thug Life, Vidaamuyarchi
When the Tamil film industry puts out good numbers, these are largely driven by the superstars, though audiences are quick to embrace well-made content driven small-budget films as well.
However, in the first half of 2025, almost all the biggies featuring the leading stars bombed at the box-office, with the sole exception of Ajith's Good Bad Ugly.
This year’s hit Tamil films so far have been Madha Gaja Raja, Kudumbasthan, Dragon, Good Bad Ugly, Tourist Family, Maaman, and Eleven. Atharvaa's DNA and Vijay Antony's Maargan, which released in the last two weeks of June, also have the potential to turn into box-office hits, going by the trend at ticket windows.
Big-budget flops
From this bunch of winners in the first half of 2025, only Good Bad Ugly had a big superstar in the lead, while Madha Gaja Raja featuring Vishal is a film with a tier-2 star. All the other hit movies made big money because of their strong content.
Also read: Tourist Family review: Such a jolly good ride
From January to June 2025, Ajith's Vidaamuyarchi, Vikram's Veera Dheera Sooran, Suriya's Retro, Kamal Haasan's Thug Life, Vijay Sethupathi's Ace, and Dhanush's Kuberaa were released with massive expectations. All these films had big stars and massive pre-release promotions but all of them flopped at the box office.
While Retro is a profitable film for the producers with lucrative non-theatrical deals and a smart production strategy (both the film's hero Suriya and director Karthik Subbaraj are the producers and so no remunerations for hero and director were involved as well), the other films incurred humongous losses.
Thug Life is the biggest disaster for Kamal Haasan as his production house Raaj Kamal Films released the film on its own, through distributors who helped with the release on a commission basis. Thug Life marked the reunion of Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, after Nayakan, but the film was panned by critics and audiences alike. It notched up less than Rs 100 crore gross box office collection (GBOC), which is not a satisfactory figure for the legends.
Dhanush's Kuberaa had an average run in Telugu states but in Tamil Nadu, with the film grossing around just Rs 20 crore.
Face-saver for Ajith
Ajith's Vidaamuyarchi managed to gross just Rs 83 crore in Tamil Nadu, which is very poor for a star of his calibre. Luckily for him, he made a comeback with Good Bad Ugly, which collected around Rs 270 crore GBOC globally. The Ajith Kumar starrer is also the table-topper of the first half of 2025. Trisha Krishnan co-starred him in both films.
Also read: ‘Veera Dheera Sooran’ review: Poor plot plagues Vikram-starrer, gifted cast saves the day
Vikram's poor form continued with Veera Dheera Sooran, which couldn't even gross Rs 70 crore globally. Retro managed to collect Rs 50 crore in Tamil Nadu and almost Rs 100 crore globally but it's still not the comeback that Suriya and his fans were yearning for. The film tanked though the Kanimaa song featuring Suriya and Pooja Hegde was among the year's biggest hits and went viral even pre-release.
Vijay Sethupathi's Ace collected less than Rs 10 crore in Tamil Nadu, shocking everyone in the trade.
Big surprise
The biggest surprise of 2025 is Sasikumar's Tourist Family. The film collected a phenomenal Rs 78 crore globally. In Tamil Nadu, the film managed to collect around Rs 62.5 crore.
Sasikumar was not in great form during the release and the film was directed by a debutant, Abishan. But, it went on to attract audiences to theaters largely because of the content and positive word-of-mouth. Simran co-stars Sasikumar in the film.
Rising star
It's clear that Pradeep Ranganathan is the new rising star in Tamil cinema. His Dragon, directed by Aswath Marimuthu, collected Rs 150 crore GBOC globally, and in Tamil Nadu alone, the film collected around Rs 83 crore.
The film, which also stars Anupama Parameswaran, Mysskin, KS Ravikumar and Gautham Vasudev Menon, brought instant fame to debutant Kayadu Lohar.
Also read: Dragon review: Ashwath Marimuthu’s entertaining tale of second chances
Manikandan's Kudumbasthan also brought good returns for the budget involved in making the film. The film collected nearly Rs 21 crore in the state. Soori's Maaman wasn't praised by critics but it satisfied the target family audiences and collected around Rs 45 crore.
Soori, the comedian turned hero, proved that he has a solid market in Tamil Nadu.
Surprise hit
Another surprise hit of the year is Sundar C's Madha Gaja Raja featuring Vishal and Santhanam in the lead. Madha Gaja Raja was in the cans for 12 years and finally got released this Pongal. For the first time in the history of Tamil cinema, a 12-year-old film collected nearly Rs 52 crore at the box office.
On the downside, Sundar C's new film, Gangers, featuring Vadivelu and him, was also released this year. But the film was a failure since it made just Rs 10 crore in TN.
The small-budget adult-only film Fire and horror film MurMur also managed to mop up some profits by attracting target audiences.
No mood for mediocrity
In the final analysis, the blockbusters of 2025 turned out to be Good Bad Ugly, Tourist Family, Dragon, Madha Gaja Raja, Maaman, and Kudumbasthan.
Eleven, DNA, and Maargan earned decent profits, while the movies that bit the dust and incurred significant losses for producers were Thug Life, Vidaamuyarchi, Veera Dheera Sooran, Kuberaa, and Ace. Theatrically, Retro can be termed as an average venture.
Clearly, the first half of 2025 showed that audiences are in no mood to accept mediocrity in the name of big-budget films with A-listers. They only want to enjoy content-driven quality films or star-driven films that are entertaining.
Hopefully, biggies like Rajinikanth-Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie, Dhanush's Idli Kadai, Suriya's Karuppu, and others bring back the joy for the trade. We also expect more small-budget surprises in the second half of the year.
