Our monthly feature The India Box Office Report tracks the performance of the various films released every month at the Indian (domestic) box office. Monthly reports are published on this website in the third week of the following month. This is the May 2026 edition of the report. You can access the previous reports in the Insights section of this website.

Cumulative Box Office: May 2026

Films released in May 2026 grossed ₹1,138 Cr at the domestic box office, including projected future collections of May releases. Karuppu and Drishyam 3 were the major contributors, followed by Marathi film Raja Shivaji and the International horror film Obsession, which were the other two films to surpass the ₹100 Cr mark in the month. Together, the top four films accounted for more than 50% of the month’s total gross collections. 

The cumulative box office of 2026 stands at ₹5,373 Cr, which is 12% higher compared to the same period in 2025.

Top 10 Films

The chart below lists the top 10 films released in May 2026, based on their box office performance in India. 

Karrupu (including its Telugu version Veerabhadrudu) emerged as the top film of the month. Two Marathi films, i.e., Raja Shivaji and Deool Band 2, feature in the top 5. Raja Shivaji's box office includes the collections of the Hindi version, which contributed about 27% to the film's gross box office.

The top 10 list of highest grossers of the year is linguistically diverse, featuring three Hindi films, two Telugu films, two Malayalam films, and one film each from Tamil, Marathi, and International cinema. The list also displays a healthy mix of genres, with presence of Action, Thriller, Comedy, Biopic, and Horror, highlighting the heterogeneity of India box office.

Language Share

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

Hindi cinema continues to lead at the India box office in 2026 with 43% share, followed by Telugu and Tamil. Marathi cinema has shown signs of resurgence in 2026, having grossed over ₹220 Cr so far this year, which is more than double the total box-office the language generated in all of 2025 (₹96 Cr). 2026 is on course to become the strongest year for Marathi cinema of all time. The record is currently held by 2022, at ₹268 Cr. However, just two films, Raja Shivaji and Deool Band 2 (both May 2026 releases) have contributed 77% of the total Marathi box office of the year between them.

How to read the numbers in this report?

Different language industries follow different reporting conventions (Gross, Nett or Share). We have used Gross Box Office as the unified measure for this report. For films releasing in multiple languages, collections are added up across languages to arrive at the film’s Gross Box Office at an all-India level.

Some films may be running in theatres at the time of publishing this report every month. For these films, Gross Box Office is estimated based on the latest trends available. Hence, it is normal that some numbers may be updated in the following month’s report, once actual collections have been estimated.

Numbers for a film are assigned to the month of its release, even if the business is spread over two or more months. For example, Kalki 2898 AD released on June 27, 2024, and a sizeable component of the film’s business was registered in July 2024. However, in the analysis, Kalki 2898 AD’s entire box office has been credited to the month of June.

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