India's most profitable film of 2025 with just ₹7 crore budget earned 1200% profit, beats Chhaava, Saiyaara

Mint

4 days ago

2025 brought much-needed relief to the Indian film industry. As the first half of the year wraps up, it's time to revisit the hits and misses at the box office. The year marked a high point for Vicky Kaushal, with Chhaava becoming his highest-grossing film, while Aamir Khan returned to form with Sitaare. Unexpected successes like Saiyaara, Thudarum, and Kuberaa took audiences by surprise. Meanwhile, highly anticipated films such as Sikandar, Thug Life, Deva, and Emergency received mixed reviews and underwhelming footfall.
But rising above all was a small-budget film with no big stars that emerged as the most profitable release of the year.
India's most profitable film of 2025 so far is the Tamil surprise box office success, Tourist Family.
Tourist Family is written and directed by Abishan Jeevinth, who made his directorial debut with the film.
The slice-of-life comedy-drama stars M. Sasikumar, Simran, Mithun Jai Sankar, and Kamalesh Jagan in the lead, while Yogi Babu, Ramesh Thilak, M. S. Bhaskar, Elango Kumaravel, Sreeja Ravi, and Bagavathi Perumal are also part of the film's ensemble cast.
The storyline of Tourist Family follows a Sri Lankan Tamil family who reach India in search of a better future after the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
The film is produced by Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment. It was released on 29 April 2025 (India) and 1 May 2025 (worldwide).
Tourist Family was made on a modest budget of just ₹ 7 crore. The film went on to earn over ₹ 90 crore worldwide, delivering a whopping 1200% profit over its production cost.
In addition to its commercial triumph, it garnered glowing reviews from both critics and audiences.
According to industry tracker Sacnilk, Tourist Family opened in India with an impressive day-one collection of ₹ 2.35 crore. It gained strong momentum over the weekend, amassing ₹ 23.3 crore in its first week alone. Powered by positive word-of-mouth, the film continued to grow and earned even more in its second week, collecting ₹ 28 crore.
The film maintained a stronghold at the box office for five consecutive weeks, ultimately ending its run with a lifetime global collection of ₹ 90 crore—of which ₹ 70.7 crore came from the Indian market alone.
With its earnings, Tourist Family has emerged as the most profitable film, even surpassing 2025's highest grosser Chhaava.
Vicky Kaushal's biggest hit Chhaava earned ₹ 808 crore worldwide. The film was made on a budget of ₹ 90 crore, which means it earned around 800% profit. While it is an impressive number, it's still less than what Tourist Family achieved with about 8% of Chhaava's budget.
Even the latest box office blockbuster, YRF's Saiyaara, featuring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, is far from replicating the profit margins attained by Tourist Family.
As per Sacnilk, Saiyaara recorded worldwide earnings of ₹ 393.80 crore. Reportedly, the Mohit Suri film is made on a budget of ₹ 50 crore, raking in 687.6% profit so far.
Other box office hits such as Housefull 5 earned ₹ 300 crore worldwide. However, it wasn't as profitable as expected due to its huge budget of ₹ 225 crore. The same goes for Salman Khan's Sikandar. Aamir Khan's Sitaare Zameen Par has done better, becoming one of the highest grossers of this year so far. It made about 300% profit, as per the latest report.
Some South Indian films have also delivered excellent profits. While Tamil film Dragon made a 300% profit at the box office, Malayalam hit Thudarum recorded about 720% profit margin. Telugu blockbuster Sankranthiki Vasthunam, the top Telugu film of 2025 so far, made around 300% profit on its ₹ 60-crore budget.
Tourist Family is now streaming on JioHotstar.