Forget about the under 10 cr grossed movies. In the 6 months of 2023, malayalam cinema couldn't event make 5 movies that collected over 15 crore.. That is truly an embarassment. The ol movies you call flops are the 3rd and 5th highest grossers. And that's because the distributor paid a little bit more. When these flop ol movies occupy the top grosser position, it shows what a bad year the industry is having.
And not all industries struggle like ours, look at tamil film industry. They have had an excellent year till now and only seem to get better. At least let's hope the second half is better.