Even as Mollywood survival thriller Manjummel Boys continues its winning run at the box office, a trade analyst claims that no streaming platform has bought the movie's OTT rights yet.
Manjummel Boys, starring an ensemble cast of Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Balu Varghese, Lal Jr., Deepak Parambol, and George Maryan in the lead, is the retelling of a daring rescue in 2006 undertaken by a group of friends when one of them fell into a deep cave (Guna Cave) in Kodaikanal.
Despite being the highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2024 and one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the year, Manjummel Boys—which opened to rave reviews—Mollywood industry tracker and analyst Sreedhar Pillai claims that OTT players are not willing to pay Rs 20 crore that the producers have demanded for the streaming rights.
"A few months back #OTT was the most lucrative rights for a Malayalam film producer. Not any longer! There are no takers for the #OTT rights of the super mega blockbuster #ManjummelBoys as the producers are demanding ₹20 crore," he tweeted. He asked if the "OTT bubble burst?"
According to him the highest offer received for Manjummel Boys is Rs 10.5 crore for all languages, which the producers say is too little.
He observed that a year back, prominent OTT players like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Dinsey+Hotstar may have grabbed Manjummel Boys OTT rights for Rs 20 crore.
"The streaming platforms also point out the film has become a mega blockbuster in theatres and can now release on OTT only after 2 to 3 months. So it does not make sense in buying at fancy prices," Pillai noted.
The analyst claimed that only Premalu and Bramayugam managed to be sold at a "decent price."
"Even big hero #Tamil films, the buying has come down to a trickle and cost of acquisition has been slashed by 50 percent. And what is worrying for producers is that there are no takers for star under-production films at fancy prices," Pillari added.
