The Jungle Book completes 50 days in India

At Rs 183 cr in box office collections, the film is now among the top grossers in the country ever, sharing space with PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and 3 Idiots

The biggest hero so far at the box office is not a Khan or Kapoor, but young Neil Sethi and his troupe of forest friends. Disney's The Jungle Book, directed by Jon Favereau, which released on April 8 in India has completed 50 days at the movies, and in this time amassed more than Rs 183 crore.

The film was released in India before the rest of the world, given it takes place in India and the popularity of the story thanks to the animated series on Doordarshan in the 1990s. Disney also wanted to tap into the summer vacation time, meaning it could attract not only the people who grew up watching the DD show, but also today's youth.

 

During its almost two month run at the box office, The Jungle Book has set many benchmarks. For one, it is the highest grossing Hollywood film, and by a huge margin it. The previous title holder was 2015's Fast and Furious 7 (F7) at Rs 106 crore. Unlike Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walkers starrer F7, The Jungle Book was released in 1,800 screens which were DCI Complaint.

According to the guidelines set by the Motion Pictures' Association, Hollywood films can be released only in DCI Complaint cinemas in India. For F7 however, the producers went ahead with an e-cinema release as well, and so the movie was available in as many as 2800 screens across the country.

The Jungle Book is not only the highest grossing Hollywood movie in India ever, it is also the highest grossing film at the box office in 2016 in general. The adventures of Mowgli attracted more revenue than the game of cat and mouse played between Aryan Khanna and his biggest Fan Gaurav (Shah Rukh Khan's Fan) or the evacuation exercise carried out by an Indian in Kuwait during the Gulf War (Akshay Kumar's Airlift). It is currently among the all-time highest grossers along with movies like PK, Ek Tha Tiger, 3 Idiots and Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

The studio released the film in four languages in India across 2D, 3D, and 3D IMAX formats. The Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions accounted for 60 per cent of the total revenues so far. Disney also launched a Jungle Book Game to coincide with the release of the film globally.

The game brings to life the feel of the jungle in a fast-paced parkour style runner format. Users can race through jungles as Mowgli while dodging Shere Khan, King Louie, Kaa and other dangers. The game is available on the iOS and Android platforms.

On the iOS platform, the game witnessed over 700,000 global downloads; out of which, India downloads were at 1.9 lakh (27per cent). In India, Apple iTunes Store ranked the game #1 On the Apple App Store in the Games, Action (Games) & Racing (Games) genres and in top 15 overall. On the Android platform, the game has had 1.4 million downloads globally, out of which 400, 000 were from India (33 per cent).