Big-budget films may dominate the box office, but the streak of low-budget films winning over theatre audiences remains strong in 2026. The year has further reinforced a trend seen for years: audiences will turn up for films that connect with them, no matter how big or small the budget. This follows the success of last year’s surprise small-budget hits such as Saiyaara, which showed that strong audience connect can outweigh star power.
2026 has shown that “content is king” and audiences are the ultimate judges. A number of films made on modest budgets have found a sizeable audience in theatres this year. Hanuman Ansh, made for around ₹2 crore, collected ₹1.08 crore in its first week and about ₹40 lakh in its second week, before its collections jumped to around ₹10.4 crore in the third week. The film has now crossed ₹75 crore in India. Tamil films Youth, made for around ₹6 crore, and Thaai Kizhavi, made for around ₹10 crore, have also emerged as box-office successes, grossing around ₹77 crore and ₹81.7 crore worldwide, respectively. Hollywood’s Obsession, made for $750,000 (around ₹6.5 crore), has crossed $426 million (around ₹3,700 crore) worldwide.
The numbers raise a larger question: What is working at the box office, and what clearly isn’t? Is audience interest moving away from scale, star power and heavy promotions towards stories that offer something they want to watch? And does the success of these films signal a change in the way producers and exhibitors assess theatrical risk?
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh believes the answer lies with the audience. “Content is king and audiences are king makers,” he says, pointing to Hanuman Ansh, which had a first-time director, first-time actor, new producer and minimal pre-release promotion. “The film is working only because the audiences have become its brand ambassadors,” he says. Despite a poor first week and a “total collapse” in the second, the film bounced back while competing with bigger releases including Spider-Man, Awarapan 2, Batwara 1947 and Toxic. “Who would have ever thought that Hanuman Ansh would give a run for the money to the biggest of them? No one would have thought,” Adarsh says.
He also cites Mirzapur: The Movie as another example of the changing box-office equation. “Mirzapur again is an eye-opener. It’s a case-study. Because it doesn’t have the conventional Khan, Kapoor, Kumar, Roshan in the past. Or Singh, Ranbir Singh, Ranbir Kapoor. Not those actors. Yes, they are very good actors. But they are not stars as such,” he says, pointing to its “27 crores plus” Day 1 opening. “Who would have ever thought that Mirzapur would be in the top five? In terms of openings.” For Adarsh, the takeaway is clear: “I think your content has to be right. Otherwise, all these factors fall flat on the face.”
Trade analyst Atul Mohan sees the change partly as a result of an audience that has become more exposed to different kinds of cinema. With OTT platforms and social media broadening what viewers consume, he says, “The same routine won’t work now. Cinema has to change now.” He points out that audiences today have greater exposure to different kinds of stories and are looking for something beyond familiar formulas. That does not mean big-budget cinema has lost its relevance. Rather, the current box office suggests that size alone is no longer a guarantee of success. As Mohan puts it, “If the film is good, it will do. If the film is bad, it won’t do. Same is the case of any big budgeted movies.”
For an industry where theatrical returns can determine whether a film is viable, the success of smaller films also changes the risk calculation. A modestly mounted film has less to recover, while a strong audience response can allow it to build over several weeks. Hanuman Ansh is a case in point: after a poor first two weeks, its collections rose sharply in the third week and the film continued to hold in theatres. Mohan believes the answer is not to replace big films with small ones, but to make room for both. “We need both kinds of cinema,” he says, arguing that films made with limited resources also need support from exhibitors and audiences.