Malikappuram continued to garner support at the box office with it collecting 4.50 Cr in 5 days at the Kerala box office. It has become the highest grossing solo movie for Unni Mukundan in just 5 days. It raked in another 72 lakhs on Tuesday to take the top spot at Kerala box office from Avatar 2. With the first week of January not having any big releases, it is expected to continue the good run until Thunivu and Varisu arrive next week. It will also release in the overseas markets this weekend and the chances of it hitting 10 Cr this weekend look high. So it has given a pleasant surprise for Mollywood at the start of the year after a lukewarm Christmas season. Also it gave Unni Mukundan the much needed break at box office after a run of underwhelming performances. It's all set to reign supreme this weekend too.
Avatar 2 although finally dropped down and gave up its top spot, it managed to add another 60 lakhs to its total taking its total to 34.53 Cr, which is minus the additional 3D charges and it is all set to finish close to 40 Cr as it will hold onto all the major screens till Varisu arrives. Thus 2022 saw a Hollywood, Tamil and Kannada movie go past 30 Cr in Kerala, a mark which was only conquered by one other language film in Kerala, which was Baahubali 2.
Kaapa has dropped ever since Malikappuram took off and it has somewhat underperformed in its second week despite not having a clear competition. It added another 25 lakhs on Tuesday taking its Kerala total within touching distance of 12 Cr. Its performance in overseas markets is a huge letdown as the movie will probably finish below 18 Cr worldwide despite having collected close to 12 Cr in Kerala. Its worldwide total is almost one third of Kaduva which had the same actor-director combo. It can save its blushes as other Xmas releases never really took off and it managed to get above average collections in the holiday season.
