Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson in a promotional still from the action comedy Runner

Photo via Koimoi

Can a small film still become a hit on word of mouth?

CutMirchi's coverage from September and October shows several low-budget titles climbing steadily after weak starts, even as bigger films lean on scale instead.

By The Long Read3 hours ago9 min read

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Yes, at least going by a month of CutMirchi's coverage. Several low-budget films opened quietly and then climbed steadily as word of mouth spread, most strikingly Hanuman Ansh, which went from a barely-there opening to a worldwide gross past Rs 300 crore on a reported budget of around Rs 2 crore (3, 9, 20). Smaller Tamil and Malayalam titles such as Baththa, Anbil Avan and Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar show the same pattern on a more modest scale, while bigger releases with starrier casts have sometimes struggled by comparison (16, 18, 22, 4).

The clearest example is a devotional film nobody expected to last

Hanuman Ansh opened on July 31 to collections so thin that trade watchers had largely written it off within a fortnight, with its first two weeks together bringing in just Rs 1.48 crore (3, 9). According to trade estimates cited by Telugu Filmibeat, the film was shot for around Rs 2 crore, with promotional spends taking the total closer to Rs 3 crore, against a break-even target pegged at Rs 10 crore (3). Week three is where trade estimates say the film found its audience, pulling in around Rs 10 crore on its own (3). By day 41 it had crossed Rs 300 crore worldwide, and by day 61 Koimoi reported it had sold 8 million BookMyShow tickets, becoming the first low-budget spiritual film to crack the all-time top 10 chart and push franchise titles like War 2 and Tiger 3 down the rankings (9, 20). Hombale Films, the studio behind KGF and Kantara, later told Variety it used data from Mahavatar Narsimha to plan the film's overseas rollout, crossing $3.5 million abroad, and separately picked up the entire South theatrical rights after an earlier Telugu release plan fell through (14, 15).

Smaller Tamil and Malayalam films are showing the same climbing pattern

Vijay Sethupathi's Baththa opened on October 1 without much noise, crossing Rs 11 crore and 700 screens within the first week and a half, with distributors adding shows in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow and Noida, markets outside its original release plan, specifically in response to demand, according to Koimoi (16, 23). Anbil Avan, an Ashok Selvan starrer that released on a Friday crowded with other Tamil titles, reached its profit zone, with director R. Karthikeyan crediting the jump in screen count for building momentum and producer Abinaya Selvam noting that Day 3 collections actually beat the opening day (18). In Malayalam, Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar had a slow start that suggested it might fade quickly, but instead became the sixth highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2026, still screening in over 300 theatres in its fourth week, with an occupancy rate of 11 percent on its fourth Wednesday (22). Bethlehem Kudumba Unit opened in theatres with zero pre-release noise and went on to gross more than ₹325 crore worldwide, later setting a 2026 streaming record for non-Hindi Indian films on JioHotstar with 5.4 million views in its opening weekend there and an Ormax Power Rating of 92 (19).

The same pattern shows up outside India too

CutMirchi's coverage of North American releases carries similar stories. Buddy, a killer-mascot horror comedy made on a reported $3 million budget, cleared its break-even mark in ten days on word of mouth alone, without any overseas release yet on the books, and its second-weekend collections actually rose 6.2 percent over its opening weekend, an unusual trajectory for horror, according to figures reported via Box Office Mojo (1). Alan Ritchson's Runner opened softer, at an estimated $2.5 million on its Friday debut, but walked away with an A- CinemaScore, a grade Koimoi noted put it ahead of The Beekeeper and Nobody 2 and on par with The Equalizer and Wrath of Man (5, 7). Obsession, a low-budget horror film that cost less than a million dollars to make, has logged 129 days inside JustWatch's US Top 10 on Peacock, a run Collider says has already touched No. 1 more than once (12). Even Sebastian Stan's Fjord, a Nordic drama that cost a reported €4.7 million, posted a $31,000 per-screen average in a four-theatre debut, a figure Screen Rant called the best limited opening of the 2020s for Stan, driven in its reading by a 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score rather than franchise branding (25).

Studios are starting to bet on this pattern deliberately

Mythri Movie Makers, a banner known for pan-India scale, is backing 418, a horror thriller made for a reported Rs 6-8 crore, and has chosen to skip the usual promotional blitz of trailers and song launches (29, 27). Producer Ravi Shankar told 123telugu the studio conducted a private screening in Bombay where, in his words, "the majority liked 418 calling it extraordinary" (27). His explanation for the quiet marketing was blunt: "We have a strong belief in the content" (27). The studio is instead leaning on a Bombay test screening and paid premieres to let reaction travel before the film's wider release (27). That is a deliberate echo of what happened to Hanuman Ansh and Baththa without any studio planning behind it, suggesting at least one major Telugu-Kannada banner now sees quiet word of mouth as a strategy worth building around rather than a lucky accident.

Word of mouth does not guarantee a happy ending, and it cuts both ways

CutMirchi's coverage also shows word of mouth working against films, and shows that star power or an existing franchise is no substitute for it. Karthi's Sardar 2 opened to Rs 5.30 crore across India, with Tamil Nadu alone contributing Rs 3.75 crore and the rest of the country managing only around Rs 15 lakh combined, a drop-off the report said points to where the film's actual audience sits, with online reception already mixed (4). Tu Hai Meri Kiran, starring Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal, opened to a reported Rs 10 lakh on day one, trailing two other recent small-budget releases, Tum Mere Ho and Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar, according to trade estimates reported by Pinkvilla (30). Other Mommy, a Jessica Chastain horror film, shows the reverse case: it has crossed $30 million in the US even though, as Koimoi put it, word of mouth on the film has stayed "genuinely poor" (26). Meesaya Murukku 2 arrived carrying the weight of a well-liked original, with Tamil sequels generally having had what 123telugu called a miserable run lately, making it a test case for whether the format itself can still pull an opening weekend regardless of word of mouth (13). None of these outcomes track neatly with budget size alone; a weak reception can sink a starry film, and a strong one can rescue a tiny one, but the direction of word of mouth appears to matter more than who is in the cast.

What the coverage does not tell us

This account is built from roughly a month of one site's reporting, drawing mainly on trade estimates from outlets like Sacnilk, Koimoi, Pinkvilla and 123telugu, all of which the reports themselves describe as estimates rather than audited figures (3, 4, 16, 30). It cannot say how representative these examples are against the full slate of releases in any given month; the release tracker alone lists 46 Hindi, 41 Tamil, 40 Telugu, 45 Malayalam and 26 Kannada films across its window, far more than the handful of titles covered in depth here. The coverage also cannot show why word of mouth spreads for one small film and not another of similar size and budget, since the reports describe outcomes rather than the underlying mechanics of audience behaviour, marketing spend that goes unreported, or regional distribution decisions made off the record. It is also worth noting that some of the loudest word-of-mouth successes here are genre- or faith-driven, such as Hanuman Ansh's pull on what the report called long-standing faith circles, which may not generalise to films without that kind of built-in audience (20).

What to watch

Several threads from this coverage remain open. Nani's The Paradise is carrying trade estimates of a ₹100 crore opening day if it lands positive word of mouth, with trade sources telling 123telugu it could push the actor past ₹200 crore lifetime for the first time (10). Hanuman Ansh's South rollout, now handled entirely by Hombale Films across Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam, still has no announced release date even though dubbing is complete (15). Mythri's 418 is a test of whether a studio's deliberate word-of-mouth strategy, built around a Bombay test screening rather than a trailer blitz, can replicate what happened organically with other small films (27, 29). And Clayface, a DC horror detour made for a reported $30 million, is being watched for how quickly it moves to streaming, with Warner Bros' usual 45-day theatrical window suggesting a digital release around December 7, 2026, well before any word-of-mouth run could fully play out in cinemas (28).

Sources

Buddy Turns A $3 Million Horror Budget Into $14.3 Million, reported from Koimoi - Box Office
Hanuman Ansh Nears Rs 200 Crore On A Rs 3 Crore Budget, reported from The Times of India Entertainment, Google News · World entertainment, Telugu Filmibeat - Main
Karthi's Sardar 2 Opens With Rs 5.30 Crore Amid Mixed Reviews, reported from Pinkvilla, Google News · World entertainment, Google News · Box Office India
Alan Ritchson's Runner Opens Soft But Solid In North America, reported from Koimoi, Google News · World entertainment
Runner Opens Slow With $2.5 Million But CinemaScore Beats Tenet, reported from Koimoi, Koimoi - Box Office
Hanuman Ansh Crosses Rs 300 Crore On A Rs 2 Crore Budget, reported from Google News · Box Office India, Google News · World entertainment, Hindustan Times Entertainment
Trade Pegs Nani's The Paradise For ₹100 Crore Opening Day, reported from 123telugu.com
Obsession Hits 129 Days On US Streaming Top 10, reported from Collider
Meesaya Murukku 2 Hits Theatres Amid Tamil Sequel Slump, reported from 123telugu.com
Hombale Films Reveals How It Took Hanuman Ansh Past $3.5 Million Abroad, reported from Variety
Hombale Films Buys South Rights To Hanuman Ansh, reported from Telugu360 - Movie News
Vijay Sethupathi's Baththa Crosses Rs 11 Crore In Four Days, reported from Filmibeat Tamil - News
Anbil Avan Hits Profit Zone, Team Credits Word Of Mouth, reported from Only Kollywood
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit Clocks 5.4 Million Views In Opening Weekend, reported from Times Now, Telugu Filmibeat - Main
Hanuman Ansh Box Office: 8 Million Tickets Sold, Pushes War 2 & Tiger 3 Out of Top 10, reported from Koimoi - Box Office
Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar Becomes 6th Highest-Grossing Mollywood Film of 2026, reported from IMDb, Koimoi - Box Office, Koimoi
Vijay Sethupathi's Baththa Crosses 700 Screens Across India, reported from Koimoi
Avengers: Doomsday Faces Unlikely Challenge From a Quiet Nordic Drama, reported from Screen Rant
Other Mommy Horror Movie Crosses $30 Million Despite Brutal Reviews, reported from Koimoi
418 Producer Defends Quiet Promotion, Bets On Word Of Mouth, reported from 123telugu.com
Clayface Could Hit HBO Max By Early January, reported from Screen Rant
Mythri Movie Makers Bets ₹8 Crore On Horror Debut 418, reported from Cinema Express
Tu Hai Meri Kiran Opens To Just Rs 10 Lakh On Day One, reported from Pinkvilla, PINKVILLA

This analysis was written by CutMirchi's automated Analysis Desk from the stories listed above and from our release tracker. Figures are as those reports gave them; trade figures are estimates.