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Mufasa: The Lion King Box Office Preview: Shah Rukh Khan, Mahesh Babu boost prospects in India
India could very well be the only market where Mufasa opens on par with or at the very least closest to The Lion King.
Amidst the ongoing box office phenomenon Pushpa 2, the major release this weekend is a Hollywood title, Mufasa: The Lion King. The sequel to the 2019 release, The Lion King, is essentially a spin-off prequel. The Lion King was a major hit at the Indian box office, collected Rs. 154.50 crore (Rs. 188 crore GROSS) and became the fourth highest-grossing Hollywood film in India at the time.
Elsewhere in the world, Mufasa is coming in well short of the highs that The Lion King saw at the box office. The Lion King carried immense buzz fueled by a wave of nostalgia for the original animated classic, with its peak summer release driving near-record openings in several markets. By contrast, Mufasa has a subdued buzz, thanks in large part to the middling reception that The Lion King got. Furthermore, it is releasing in the pre-Christmas period, traditionally a quieter time for Western markets.
In India, though, the situation could unfold differently. For one, The Lion King was big in India but not Avengers or Avatar level big as it was elsewhere. The reception for the 2019 film was pretty good in India and more importantly, Mufasa has an added advantage over The Lion King locally. Shah Rukh Khan who dubbed Mufasa in The Lion King in Hindi, returns to reprise his role. It adds superstar Mahesh Babu as the voice for Mufasa in the Telugu version. further enhancing its local star power.
India could very well be the only market where Mufasa opens on par with or at the very least closest to The Lion King. The Lion King opened with Rs. 11.10 crore first day in India which is what Mufasa will be targeting. The film has sold 35K tickets in the national chains for its first day at the time of writing, with the final number by the end of the day expected to be 60-70K. Apart from that, the film is seeing strong pre-sales for the dubbed versions, particularly Telugu. Normally, for a Hollywood film, the English version makes up 70-80 per cent of pre-sales but for Mufasa, it is only 45 per cent.
Based on the pre-sales, the film would be looking at an opening day of Rs. 8-9 crore but with stronger walkup business for the dubbed versions, it could go well over Rs. 10 crore. The Lion King saw huge growth over its weekend on Saturday and Sunday, which will probably be tough to replicate since South India, which is a frontloaded market will be making a larger share of collections but being a family film, it should see a strong turnout on Saturday and Sunday anyway.
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