Last week, Tamil Nadu cinemas breathed a bit because the family’s viewers were standing in large numbers to see Disney’s The Lion King. This film has surprised the business despite the two biggest Tamil releases – Kadram Kondrum of Vikram and the well known of Amla Paul. Lion King, who was released in both English and Tamil, was able to enter the B and C markets of Tamil Nadu and a winner emerged.
The July 19-21 weekend was the best one for the trade, after the Pongal week from January 8 to 14, when Rajinikanth’s Petta and Ajith’s Viswasam brought in the family audiences. The summer releases in Kollywood were severely affected by several factors ranging from IPL 2019 to Parliamentary Elections. However, The Lion King is doing well at the box office worldwide. According to trade reports, it topped the North American box-office with a record $185 million weekend opening and added another $346 million at the international market, making a total of $531 million in the opening weekend. As far as the Indian market is concerned, The Lion King became the third-highest-grossing Hollywood film of all time (opening weekend), netting an impressive ₹54.75cr (including Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu versions). In Tamil Nadu alone, the film grossed over ₹10.25 cr and a net of ₹7.15 cr, out of which, almost 70% has come from the Tamil version. Trade sources say that The Lion King will continue to dominate in the second week.
The success formula Of The Lion King
What made The Lion King tower over other Tamil releases in Tamil Nadu? Firstly, Disney promoted the film aggressively, roping in local stars to lend their voices for the animated characters. Madhan Karky wrote the Tamil dialogues, which gave a local flavor to the movie. The familiar and popular ‘voice cast’ — Siddharth (Simba), Arvind Swami (Scar), Aishwarya Rajesh (Nala), dubbing artist Ravishankar (Mufasa), and comedians Singampuli (Timon), Robo Shankar (Pumbaa) and Manobala — helped in striking a chord with the audiences. And the photo-realistic imagery made it a breathtaking experience on screen.
ARK Ramasamy Raja managing director of Ram Muthuram Cinema Jashodaben in Tirunelveli. Ramaswami King says, “The Tamil version of The Lion King is a kind of festival released, Ninety percent of the audience are family, and they are enjoying it in 3D format. We welcome this for a dubbed English film. Never seen like this, even for a Monday evening show, it was almost home, the movie is a super hit and will walk smoothly for the coming weeks. Theater owners and distributors of Tamil Nadu, The makers, are not cautious when it comes to certifying their film, because of the entertainment tax, the producers first emphasized on obtaining the ‘U’ certificate. But after the GST regime, they are now concerned about certification In recent times, one of the ‘U’ certified films, Vishwam and now Lion King are examples of this. There is still resistance to the movie’ U / A’ or ‘A.’ It is essential to bring in family audiences, because more numbers, it translates to box office figures.
Meanwhile, Hollywood is likely to follow the latest trend, hoping to rope in more Kollywood stars, to cater to the respective audiences. And the crowds in theatres seem to be saying what has become the new punchline among kids — Hakuna Matata.
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