May 2023 Box Office: The Kerala Story Blockbuster, IB71, Afwaah, Chatrapathi & Others Flop Big Time —

The May month of 2023 has seen one huge blockbuster in the form of The Kerala Story, while the rest of the releases have tanked at the box office. It's nothing new for Bollywood since almost every month has seen major flops in the post-pandemic era.

The first week of May 2023 started off with a bang, as The Kerala Story surpassed all expectations—thanks to controversies and ground-level buzz. The film is still running strong in its fourth week and has already become the second-biggest hit of 2023 after Pathaan so far. The other release, Afwaah, became an all-time disaster.

Sreenivas Bellamkonda and Nushrratt Bharuccha's Chatrapathi, Sharman Joshi and Shriya Saran's Music School, and Vidyut Jammwal's IB71 clashed in the second week of May, only to cause themselves extra suffering. Chatrapathi couldn't make it to a double-digit lifetime total; Music School couldn't surpass even half of that; and IB71 went to flop with collections of a little over 18 crore nett.

The next releases were only for names such as Aazam, 8 AM Metro, and so many low-budget films that couldn't even find an audience to survive on the opening day. Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Neha Sharma's Jogira Sara Ra Ra was the biggest of them all, yet it did not go well. Had there not been The Kerala Story, May 2023 would have been another bad month for Bollywood.