2025 became a year of correction for Bollywood — not disastrous, but revealing. Only three films truly succeeded in theatres — Dhurandhar, Chhaava and Saiyaara — each sustained by audience endorsement rather than star image alone. A few others such as Raid 2, Tere Ishq Mein and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat managed moderate success within controlled budgets. Outside this limited success bracket, the industry saw a long line of 2025 Bollywood flops, films that arrived with hype and scale but could not translate anticipation into footfalls.
The pattern was consistent. Films opened well but dropped sharply after the initial rush. Sequels leaned on nostalgia instead of reinvention, large spectacles prioritised size over story, and star vehicles couldn’t survive past weekend curiosity. The OTT-shaped viewer became selective — if the content didn’t compel a theatrical outing, they simply waited. 2025 didn’t break Bollywood; it exposed what no longer works and what audiences are no longer willing to accept without question. The box office failures of 2025 reflect that shift more clearly than the successes.
Below is the countdown of the Top 10 most significant Bollywood commercial failures of 2025, ranked not merely by loss, but by expectation vs outcome, hype vs turnout, and market impact.
10. Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri
Budget: ₹90 Cr
WW Gross: ₹39.05 Cr (still running)
Verdict: Flop → Disaster-trajectory
A Christmas-week youth romance featuring Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday carried multiplex appeal and holiday advantage. Promotions positioned it as a modern love story with pastel aesthetics and music-led marketing aimed at Gen-Z. The opening was healthy, driven by star recall and seasonal footfall. However, the film lacked repeat value — the lifeline of romance.
WOM described it as pleasant but plain, with no breakout song or strong emotional arc. By the first weekday, screens thinned; by Week 2, theatrical presence had eroded drastically. It remains among the sharpest collapses of the season — a classic case where OTT-friendly tonality weakened big-screen urgency, placing it firmly among early OTT-friendly tonality weakened big-screen urgency, placing it firmly among early 2025 Bollywood flops.
Why it failed: weak music traction, predictable writing, no emotional recall, fast drop after holiday window.
9. De De Pyaar De 2
Budget: ₹150 Cr
WW Gross: ₹111.77 Cr
Verdict: Flop
The first film earned goodwill (though it was not a hit film) for its grown-up handling of romance. The sequel expected to build on nostalgia with Ajay Devgn returning, supported by Rakul Preet Singh and R. Madhavan. The opening weekend suggested hope, but the film plateaued early.
It was liked, not loved.
There was charm but little novelty; humour outdated in parts, conflict familiar, and music non-viral. Without a cultural hook or conversation moment, the film drifted into “pleasant but skippable” territory. It performed decently for a few days, but couldn’t sustain beyond the core urban audience. Like many box office failures of 2025, it was pleasant but skippable — cinema without urgency.
Why it failed: comfort cinema without necessity, no marquee song, limited WOM legs, sequel positioning without fresh storytelling.
8. Sky Force
Budget: ₹160 Cr
WW Gross: ₹150.01 Cr
Verdict: Flop
An aviation-action drama led by Akshay Kumar, Sky Force blended military tone with human stories around aerial defence. The trailer promised scale and patriotic thrill — historically a strong space for Akshay post Airlift and Baby. The opening validated this goodwill. However, films in this genre need emotional ownership, not just mission mechanics.
Soon after release, allegations of inflated box office collections began circulating across trade circles and social media, with discussions suggesting that reported figures may not have accurately reflected ground-level footfalls.
Why it failed: adequate, not exceptional; low repeat pull; execution over emotional drive; respectable but unremarkable theatrical footprint.
7. Baaghi 4
Budget: ₹80 Cr
WW Gross: ₹77.67 Cr
Verdict: Disaster
The law of diminishing returns finally caught up with once one of Hindi cinema’s most bankable modern action franchises, Baaghi declined sharply with its fourth entry. Tiger Shroff delivered physicality and stunt design with trademark flair, but audiences were no longer impressed by action without narrative escalation.
Storytelling fatigue was evident. The film echoed beats audiences had seen repeatedly — kidnap, vengeance, martial-arts-combat escalation — without new stakes or world-building. Piracy further dented recovery.
Why it failed: franchise exhaustion, action-heavy but emotionally thin writing, no reinvention, low word-of-mouth carry.
6. Emergency
Budget: ₹60 Cr
WW Gross: ₹23.81 Cr
Verdict: Disaster
Kangana Ranaut’s political historical drama generated significant pre-release conversation due to its subject matter — the 1975 Emergency and Indira Gandhi’s role. Controversy increased awareness, but did not translate into demand. The film’s dense, debate-driven tonality skewed serious, making the target audience narrow and the entertainment quotient minimal. It became more of an ideological talking point than a theatrical draw. It opened soft and experienced steep weekday drops; Emergency became more of an ideological talking point than a theatrical draw.
Why it failed: polarising theme, limited mass appeal, heavy tone, academic watch more than cinematic experience.
5. 120 Bahadur
Budget: ₹90–100 Cr
WW Gross: ₹24.06 Cr
Verdict: Big Disaster (Worst ROI of 2025)
120 Bahadur had scale and sincerity, but not the emotional ignition a war film needs. Pre-release buzz was muted, the trailer created curiosity but no breakout moment, and the music/dialogue never reached cultural traction. Viewers admired intent but felt underwhelmed by the absence of a defining high, resulting in weak word-of-mouth and limited repeat value.
The film opened modestly, dropped heavily after the first weekend, and with ₹24.06 Cr against a ₹90–100 Cr budget, it ended up as the lowest ROI performer among 2025 box office failures. A respectful attempt — but not a memorable one.
Why it failed: no emotional peak, limited recall, weak WOM legs, no anthem or cultural moment to carry theatres.
4. Son of Sardaar 2
Budget: ₹130 Cr
WW Gross: ₹66.01 Cr
Verdict: Disaster
Son of Sardaar 2 returned after 12 years with nostalgia on its side, but no creative reinvention. Instead of evolving its humour, the film repeated the old slapstick template — broad gags, loud energy, predictable punchlines — at a time when audiences have moved toward sharper OTT-style comedy. Single screens showed initial support, but multiplex traction was weak and WOM never gathered momentum.
Week-two numbers dropped sharply, and with ₹130 Cr budget vs ₹66.01 Cr worldwide, it became one of 2025’s clear commercial failures. Nostalgia brought attention, but not retention.
Why it failed: outdated humour, no reinvention, weak WOM, fast post-opening decline.
3. Housefull 5
Budget: ₹240–250 Cr
WW Gross: ₹288.67 Cr
Verdict: Flop (High-budget liability)
The fifth Housefull film arrived with franchise recall, a festival slot and the promise of large-scale comedy aimed at family audiences. The opening responded to that pull — nostalgia and ensemble chaos drove early footfalls. But once the initial crowd passed, the weaknesses surfaced. The film relied on the classic Housefull template — loud gags, confusion-driven humour and extravagant set pieces — without the sharp punchlines or quotable moments needed to thrive in the OTT era.
Audiences today seek wit and memorable humour, not just noise and scale. Housefull 5 delivered laughs in patches, but lacked recall value and repeat-worth moments. For a film mounted at ₹240–250 Cr, it needed legs beyond Week 1. Instead, WOM softened quickly, momentum dipped, and the economics never caught up despite a decent start.
Why it failed: high scale without replay value, humour fatigue, no evolution in writing, and a sharp drop post-opening.
2. War 2
Budget: ₹400 Cr
WW Gross: ₹364.35 Cr
Verdict: Disaster
War 2 was positioned as the major expansion of the YRF Spy Universe, powered by the star pairing of Hrithik Roshan and Jr. NTR. Pre-release projections soared to ₹800–1000 Cr, and the strong opening confirmed the scale of excitement. But once the first weekend passed, momentum dipped. Viewers praised the action and technical scale, yet many felt the film lacked a tight emotional core and narrative escalation, functioning more like a spectacle run than a story-driven event.
Spyverse fatigue also showed — high expectations demanded evolution, not repetition. With a budget near ₹400 Cr and a worldwide total of ₹364.35 Cr, the film underperformed despite a strong start. It stands today as one of the largest Box Office Failures of Bollywood.
Why it failed: scale without depth, mixed WOM, franchise fatigue, and no narrative jump beyond expectations.
1. Sikandar
Budget: ₹200 Cr
WW Gross: ₹184.89 Cr
Verdict: Disaster (Most impactful flop of the year)
A Salman Khan Eid release is expected to dominate on arrival, and Sikandar entered with that aura — A.R. Murugadoss directing, large-scale promotions, high anticipation. The opening was strong, proving star pull remains intact. But the real test — retention — faltered. From Day 2 onward, numbers slipped sharply as audiences appreciated moments but didn’t find enough to revisit or recommend. Conversation around the film faded quickly, exposing a gap between expectation and cinematic output.
With ₹200 Cr budget vs ~₹184.89 Cr worldwide, it ended below recovery, becoming the year’s most symbolic setback — not for low opening, but for weak hold.
Why it failed: limited emotional depth, underwhelming writing, strong opening but no momentum, star power couldn’t compensate for content.
Dishonourable Mentions
Two titles fall just outside the Top-10, not because they performed well, but because their commercial impact was softer in comparison to the bigger collapses above. Thamma, made at ₹145 Cr, closed its theatrical run at around ₹187.59 Cr worldwide. It earned solid critical appreciation, steady urban occupancy, and found favour among a segment of the audience that values grounded storytelling and restrained emotional craft. Yet, despite being discussed positively, it lacked a cultural trigger strong enough to pull mass walk-ins or generate repeat viewing. No breakout track, no memeable moment, no family circuit traction — the film became one of those rare cases where the sentiment was positive but the math didn’t align, a content success wrapped inside a commercial miss. Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, on the other hand, was a smaller loss, but a loss nonetheless. Mounted at ₹80 Cr and finishing with ₹98.35 Cr worldwide, it performed modestly within metros and youth pockets, driven by its breezy tone and urban romance appeal. But the film never managed to convert early chatter into mainstream momentum. It neither collapsed nor surged — it simply ran its course and faded, pleasant but not powerful enough to travel beyond its core audience. Both films underperformed, yet their nature of failure was milder, lacking the scale, expectation-shock, or financial drop-off that defined the ten major box office setbacks of 2025.
Industry Breakdown — Who Lost the Most in 2025
The failures of 2025 also revealed patterns in who the box office punished the hardest. Among leading stars, Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar carried the year’s heaviest footprint, each featuring twice in the flop chart — Devgn with De De Pyaar De 2 and Son of Sardaar 2, and Akshay with Sky Force and Housefull 5. The audience clearly signalled that familiarity or fandom cannot rescue content that doesn’t move them emotionally. They showed up for the stars, but stayed only when the story justified their presence.
A similar trend surfaced on the production side. Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment took the sharpest hit with Sikandar, Baaghi 4 and Housefull 5 all underperforming. Dharma too absorbed the weight of two underperformers,Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri and Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, while YRF carried the single most expensive loss of the year with War 2. Across banners, the message was consistent: the real cost of failure increases when scale outpaces storytelling. 2025 was less about weak Fridays and more about weak follow-through — films opened big, but few remained big.
Taken together, the year served as a quiet reset. It proved that scale without soul is a gamble, sequels without reinvention are liabilities, action without narrative is spectacle without memory, and romance without music rarely survives beyond weekend noise. Marketing can spark curiosity, but only emotion sustains a run. 2025 wasn’t a collapse — it was a correction. A turning point in expectations, a reminder that audiences have moved forward and cinema must follow. If Bollywood adapts, 2026 could mark renewal. If it repeats formula, sequels and stardom may continue to fall louder than ever.