KOCHI — Mohanlal’s return as Georgekutty has paid off at the box office. Drishyam 3, the third and final chapter of the Malayalam crime thriller franchise, has crossed Rs 141 crore in worldwide collections within its opening weekend, cementing its place as one of the biggest Malayalam releases of the year.
The Jeethu Joseph-directed film, released on May 21 with a wide international footprint, collected an estimated Rs 13.95 crore net on its first Sunday, a healthy jump from Saturday’s numbers and confirmation that the franchise’s grip on Indian audiences has not loosened in the five years since the previous instalment.
Kerala remained the strongest market, contributing close to Rs 9.70 crore gross on Sunday alone, with Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu adding steady business. Overseas centres in the Gulf, North America, and Western Europe also delivered well, helping the film maintain weekend momentum and pushing the worldwide cumulative total to Rs 141.34 crore by the end of Day 4.
The cast features Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Siddique, Murali Gopy, Biju Menon, and Kalabhavan Shajohn. The story picks up roughly four and a half years after the events of Drishyam 2, with Georgekutty and his family once again at the centre of a slow-burning suspense plot that has become the trademark of the franchise.
Critical reception has been more mixed than the box office numbers suggest. The Hindu described Drishyam 3 as the least effective film of the franchise, arguing that the trademark misdirection feels stretched in the third outing and that the screenplay leans too heavily on echoes of the first two films. Other reviewers have been kinder, praising Mohanlal’s restraint and Joseph’s command of pacing, but the gap between audience enthusiasm and critical assessment has been visible from opening day.
Pre-release distribution arrangements have helped the film’s reach. Produced by Aashirvad Cinemas and backed by Panorama Movies and Pen Movies, Drishyam 3 was sold to distributors at terms that industry watchers have called the biggest deal for a Malayalam film. Distributors agreed to a minimum four-week exclusive theatrical run before any over-the-top release, a structure that has become standard for tentpole Indian releases.
A Hindi adaptation is planned separately, with a theatrical release slated for October 2, 2026. That follows the franchise’s history of Hindi remakes, with Ajay Devgn having anchored the previous two adaptations, both of which performed strongly at the box office. Whether Devgn will return for the third Hindi version has not been confirmed.
The strength of Drishyam 3 fits into a broader picture of Malayalam cinema’s growing pan-India footprint. Mohanlal’s L2: Empuraan earlier this year and the smaller but well-received Thudarum showed that Malayalam releases can pull audiences across linguistic lines, and Drishyam 3 has now confirmed that the franchise’s brand carries through to the third film. Hindi-belt advance bookings for the planned dub have already begun across regional trade circles.
For Mohanlal personally, the opening completes a remarkable run over the past 18 months that has included L2: Empuraan, Thudarum, and now Drishyam 3. Each has crossed major box office milestones, reinforcing his standing as the most bankable star in Malayalam cinema and one of the most commercially powerful actors in Indian film overall.
The next test for Drishyam 3 will be the Monday-to-Friday weekday run, traditionally the period when even successful films see steep drops before the next weekend. Industry trackers will be watching whether the film can hold above the Rs 5 crore daily threshold in India, which would set up a strong second weekend and put a worldwide total of Rs 250 crore within reach before the OTT window opens. For Joseph, the director who built the franchise, the third film represents the conclusion of a narrative arc that began in 2013 and has redefined what a small-budget regional thriller can achieve in the Indian market.
