In only its first 72 hours on mainland movie screens, the Indian satirical comedy PK rode strong word of mouth to become the highest grossing Indian film in Chinese box office history.
Mind you, the hurdle to breaking the box office record wasn’t that high—these are not Transformers numbers we’re talking about. But still, a record is a record, and with its estimated $5.3 million (32.6 million RMB) weekend gross, the Bollywood blockbuster easily zipped past Dhoom 3’s $3.17 million 2014 PRC record gross to become the new Indian king of Chinese cinema.
The film stars Aamir Khan and was directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the same trio behind the 2011 hit 3 Idiots. That film held the Chinese box office crown for Indian films until it was dethroned last year by Dhoom 3, which also starred Khan.
PK tells the story of an alien who comes to Earth on a research mission, befriends a television journalist and questions religious dogmas and superstitions. The film became the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, the first to reach $100 million in box office revenue.The picture benefited from strong word of mouth in China, receiving an 8.2 rating and 94% “liked” approval on China’s movie rating site Douban. It out-earned the new Chinese rom-com release Love Without Distance to score second place for the weekend behind Avengers: Age of Ultron.
PK’s unexpectedly strong performance bodes well for a trio of upcoming China-India co-productions that were announced just last week. These include:
Kung Fu Yoga, an action comedy adventure that combines Chinese martial arts and Indian culture and that will star Jackie Chan and PK’s star Aamir Khan.
An historical drama about Xuanzang, the 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk who made an arduous journey to India to study Buddhism. Prominent Chinese director Wong Kar Wai will executive produce the film.
Another co-production, Da Nao Tian Zhu (aka “Wreaking Havoc in India”) will become the first film directed by Chinese film star Wang Baoqiang.
The three films will be among the first to be produced under a new filmmaking treaty that was established between China and India in 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India. The treaty will help boost access for India’s film industry to China, where the government’s film import quota currently favors Hollywood films at the expense of other foreign imports. It also promotes access for Chinese filmmakers in the large but notoriously closed Indian film market.