The Lion King records $14.5 mn opening in China, beating The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s _The Lion King_  which hit the screens in China, a week before its release in the US, received a grand opening with the film garnering USD 14.5 million on day one.  The Lion King’s roaring opening surpasses the first day collections of Disney’s other classics including The Jungle Book (USD 11.6 million) and Beauty and The Beast (USD 12.4 million), according to Deadline. [caption id=“attachment_6481531” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from The Lion King. Image from Twitter[/caption] The film appears to have been warmly received by Chinese filmgoers, scoring 9/10 on leading ticketing platform Maoyan which predicts the film will bring in $59 million (RMB 412 million) during its opening weekend as reported by The Hollywood reporter.  The Lion King has a stellar voice cast with the likes of Donald Glover as Simba Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon. Etched forever as a pop culture classic, the animated version is known for its enthralling storytelling and memorable characters. Meanwhile, the Hindi version of the film has Shah Rukh Khan giving his voice to Mufasa and his son Aryan Khan lending his voice to Mufasa’s son Simba. Other big names are Ashish Vidyarthi who will be the voice behind Scar’s character, Shreyas Talpade will lend his voice to Timon, Sanjay Mishra will voice Pumbaa and veteran actor Govardhan Asrani will dub for Zazu. While the screenplay of the film is written by Jeff Nathanson, songs are by legends Elton John and Time Rice. Helmed by Iron Man and The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau, the film is one of the most-anticipated films is slated to release on July 19. (With inputs from Asian News International)