Aamir Khan’s Dangal nears Rs 100-cr mark at China Box office

Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal is not far behind from crossing the Rs 100-crore benchmark set by Rajkumar Hirani’s PK as the film collected Rs 72.68 crore (USD 11.30 million) in its opening weekend in China.

To promote the film, Khan had also visited Beijing, Shanghai and Changdu ahead of the release of the movie. Khan’s popularity in China is doing wonders for the business of his movies as this would be the third movie, after 3 Idiots and PK, to have a successful run across theatres in China.

Indian film industry is doing its best to tap the Chinese movie market as it is growing rapidly. There is also more support from the neighbouring country as recently the minimal quota of Indian films in the country was increased to 4 from 2. The move comes after two joint productions, Jackie Chan and Sonu Sood-starrer Kung Fu Yoga and Buddies In India did well on the box office during the Chinese New Year.

In overseas markets, Indian movies get restricted to the US, UK, Gulf and Australia as more Indians reside there. But, now the focus is shifting to China that added an average of 22 new screens in China in 2015, according to a Wall Street Journal report. During the same year, country’s box office soared by almost 50 percent as compared to 2014 and by the end of 2015 number of screens in China increased about four times over 2010’s  31,627.

Films like Happy New Year and Dhoom 3 too raked in good collections in the Chinese mainland and the former grossed Rs 1.33 crore in six days after its release in 1,051 theatres on February 12, 2015, which was also the Chinese New Year. Yash Raj banner Dhoom 3 had earned around Rs 8.11 crore in its opening weekend after it opened in 2000 theatres.