Hollywood release The Lion King has opened very well in India. The film was expected to open around the Rs. 10 crores mark and it has done better by bringing in Rs. 11.06 crores. For a film which has been made entirely on computers and doesn't feature a human character, this is the biggest ever start for any movie - be it from Hollywood or Bollywood - in India.
In fact the numbers are even bigger than 2016 release The Jungle Book which had collected Rs. 10.09 crores in India. That film too at least had a human character as a central protagonist but The Lion King basically is all about animals and still the start is just spectacular.
Even though out there in West the reviews haven't been too flattering and even in India the critical acclaim isn't really hitting the roof, none of it has made any difference to the collections. The word of mouth may still come into play for the rest of the weekend but with a start like this and the nostalgia factor associated with The Lion King, it is still a given that the weekend numbers would get into Rs. 38-40 crores range.
Unfortunately for the new Hindi releases, there wasn't much of a screen space available either to make much of an impact. Jhootha Kahin Ka still did a bit better while Family of Thakurganj followed it. However, the combined collections of both the films is lesser than 1 crore which shows how it was The Lion King show all the way.
