With Love Box Office: Flop or Hit? Recovered its Cost Through Non-Theatrical Rights
Khardaha, West Bengal (22 February 2026) — Abishan Jeevinth and Anaswara Rajan’s cute Valentine’s rom-com With Love just wrapped its third weekend with a solid ₹31.45 Crore gross globally, officially cementing its status as a massive hit not just through ticket sales, but a genius pre-release non-theatrical rights strategy that recovered its cost before the first audience member even bought some popcorn.
Debutant director Madhan delivered a simple school-crush nostalgia trip. The audience bought it. The producers laughed their way to the bank.
This matters immensely right now. Fan wars on social media are viciously obsessed with ₹100 crore opening weekends and massive pan-India spectacles that often bleed money and leave distributors weeping. Big-budget cinema is currently a terrifying gamble.
Then comes this modest Soundarya Rajinikanth and Magesh Raj Pasilian production. No massive action set pieces. No pan-India dubbing strategy across ten languages. Just a solid script, a fresh lead pair, and Sean Roldan’s vibrant music. It proves mid-budget cinema isn’t dead. It proves you don’t need a bloated ₹200 crore budget to survive the modern box office. You need smart packaging.
Tamil cinema doesn’t have a content problem right now. It has a budgeting problem. With Love is the ultimate wake-up call for the entire industry. Producers are terrified of theatrical flops. Why risk everything on a Friday opening when you can lock in your returns on the editing table? Are massive superstar salaries actually killing the theatrical business while these smaller, tightly budgeted movies silently build massive bank balances?
Think about it.
According to a detailed distribution tracking sheet accessed by BoxOfficeWala, With Love secured incredibly lucrative non-theatrical deals weeks before its February 6 release. Netflix reportedly aggressively bagged the post-theatrical streaming rights.
Sony Music South locked the audio rights early, riding heavily on Sean Roldan’s viral hit track “Marandhu Poche”. Satellite television rights were sold at a premium. These pre-release deals combined recovered nearly the entire production cost. The theatrical run you are witnessing? Pure profit.
The Psychology of the Box Office Hit
With LoveDay 16
Why did the audience connect so well?
It is the dopamine gap. The script of With Love perfectly executed the basic psychological principle of storytelling. Expectations versus reality. You go into a romantic comedy expecting a standard boy-meets-girl plot. Reality beats expectations when Monisha suggests they track down their old school crushes. The narrative pattern is interrupted. The brain goes into a slight shock. It hooks you.
Madhan’s script maintains a brilliant emotional cycle. It doesn’t just make you laugh continuously. It dips into the awkwardness of past rejections. It uses visual cues beautifully. The audience feels the tension. They relate to Sathya’s reluctance. The neural coupling engine of the viewers gets activated. They start imagining their own school days and their own unspoken crushes. That is the secret sauce.
Oxytocin, the bonding hormone, is released in the theatre. They form a psychological connection with the characters. This isn’t just a movie anymore. It is a shared experience.
Breaking Down the ₹31 Crore Journey
Let’s look at the numbers. They tell a fascinating story of audience retention.
The opening day was slow. Day 1 (Feb 6) opened at just ₹1.6 Cr Net. Word of mouth was building. People were testing the waters.
The weekend kicked in hard. Day 2 saw a massive 68.75% jump to ₹2.7 Cr. Day 3 Sunday pushed higher to ₹3.1 Cr. The audience had accepted the film. The relatability of Monisha and Sathya resonated deeply with the Gen-Z and millennial crowds.
Weekdays brought the usual drop. Day 4 fell to ₹1.5 Cr. Notice the steady holding power. Day 5 actually saw a 20% jump to ₹1.8 Cr. The film refused to crash. It hovered around the ₹1.2 to ₹1.5 Cr mark throughout the first week.
Then came the magic of smart release timing. Valentine’s Day fell exactly on Day 9. The collection exploded. It saw an unprecedented 130.77% day-on-day jump. The film minted ₹3 Cr Net in a single day. Couples flocked to the theatres. It was the perfect date movie at the exact perfect time.
The Final Stretch
Post-Valentine’s Day numbers naturally slowed down. Day 11 dropped to ₹1 Cr. Days 12 through 14 hovered below the ₹1 Cr mark, hitting a low of ₹0.53 Cr on Day 14.
Was the run over? Not at all.
The third weekend proved the film’s incredible staying power. Day 15 jumped 79.25% to ₹0.95 Cr. Day 16 climbed to ₹1.15 Cr. Today, Day 17 (Sunday), estimates show a strong ₹1.55 Cr Net collection.
Total India Net: ₹26.71 Cr
Total India Gross: ₹31.45 Cr
These numbers represent a massive victory. The emotional cycle of the audience perfectly aligned with the theatrical pacing. They laughed, they felt the nostalgia, they recommended it to friends. The box office graphs perfectly mirror the emotional engagement of the viewers.
This changes how producers will greenlight scripts for the rest of 2026. We are looking at a massive wave of mid-budget romances relying on strong writing and bulletproof pre-release deals. The era of blindly throwing money at the screen is ending. The era of calculated, script-backed investments has begun. Expect more relatable, nostalgia-driven scripts hitting the floors next month.
As someone who tracks box office numbers daily, this is brilliant news for the industry.
A hit film isn’t just about grossing ₹500 crores; it’s about Return on Investment (ROI). With Love is a blockbuster in terms of ROI. Recovering the budget through non-theatrical rights (OTT, audio, satellite) took the pressure off the theatrical release, allowing the film to breathe and find its audience organically without the panic of immediate distributor losses. It’s a massive win for sensible filmmaking.
My Take
Original Source: According to a detailed distribution tracking sheet accessed by BoxOfficeWala, the film recovered its budget via Netflix, Sony Music South, and satellite deals prior to release.
Question For You: Do you think the Tamil film industry should focus more on these ₹20-30 crore mid-budget relatable movies rather than risking hundreds of crores on massive VFX spectacles? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
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