Aamir Khan’s ‘Dangal’ jumped the queue to become the second most viewed movie in China on the first day of its release today. The movie, which was dubbed in Chinese and shown with English subtitles, did business worth 1.57 million yuan, according to market experts tracking theater revenues. This amounts to Rs. 14.65 crores, which is about half of what the movie garnered on the first day of its release in India.
‘Dangal’ was released across 9,000 movie halls in China on Friday overshadowing the previous record held by another Aamir Khan starrer, ‘PK’, which opened in 4,000 screens. The movie also grabbed 11 percent of the total market takings across cinema halls in China today. Aamir Khan did the spadework for a wider release, spending a week traveling in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu and interacting with Chinese fans for a week last month. But China's biggest cinema exhibitor, the Wanda Group with 1,657 screens, is not showing the film in most of its halls except a mere 37 of them. This has deprived audiences in smaller Chinese towns from watching the Indian movie, where Wanda screens dominate.
The move is significant because the parent company, Dalian Wanda, has laid out plans to invest $10 billion in India, according to media reports. The Chinese social media is agog with a discussion with many saying that Wanda has deliberately boycotted the movie.
As China proved to become the biggest overseas market for 'PK', 'Dangal' will now be competing with 'PK's' record.
(Also read: Dangal sequel in the making?)