Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has become the most watched film at the Kerala box office this century, surpassing even Narasimham and Pulimurugan in footfalls, the biggest turnout for any film at the Kerala box office since the year 2000.
The film has already been confirmed as the highest grossing Malayalam film of all time, overtaking Lokah’s worldwide total, and it did so in just 24 days by Breaking Lokah’s (300 Cr+) . In Kerala specifically, the film’s gross now stands in the 148 Cr range, putting it on track to become the first ever 150 Cr grosser in the state’s history, a mark no film has touched before.
Adding real weight to the footfall claim, the film has seen more than 90 lakh admissions in Kerala alone, a genuinely historic number for the state. For context, this kind of turnout is usually reserved for the biggest action tentpoles with mass appeal, not a romantic drama, which is exactly what makes this crowd number such a landmark achievement for the film and for Girish AD as a director.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit is already an established industry hit both in Kerala and worldwide for Mollywood, with its Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions continuing their own theatrical runs alongside the Malayalam original. What makes this remarkable is that the film had already sealed its industry hit status weeks ago, and it is still piling on fresh records on top of that, most recently outrunning action tentpoles like Narasimham and Pulimurugan in raw footfalls, a first for a rom-com in Malayalam cinema this century.
