Opinion: OTT Bubble Bursting Big Time

Back in the day, after the 2018 exponential growth of the “OTT” factor, any film that got below the average reviews from film critics was a goner. Those movies will get attention only on the OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon, and will mint huge viewership, but won’t run in theatres. Cut to 2026, the case has changed, the scenario altered and here is the proof.

Recently, we have seen films like Peddi exploding so big at the box office, and that could be attributed to the stardom of Ram Charan. But then Samantha’s Maa Inti Bangaram and Akhil’s Lenin made ₹100 crores in revenue, and Kiran Abbavaram’s Chennai Love Story touched ₹60 crores gross. The common factor among these movies is that they were all rated average and none of them got 3-stars from the critics. However, they have minted huge money.

Looks like the Telugu audience, who have watched a lot of content on OTT platforms for years, finally got bored of watching movies on mobile screens, laptops and their 55-inch TVs. They are now coming back to theatres, hence the rise in theatrical collections. The above-said movies are not even musical hits, as they might have only one song that worked, but the rest all are forgotten-once-listened types.

Film analysts are feeling that the OTT bubble is slowly crashing, and the arrival of the audience into theatres and the success of these above-average-rated movies is a testimony of that. That means the OTT bubble is bursting, isn’t it?