Sultan to play on 11,000 screens in China, higher than Salman’s last release Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Another Indian star seems to have made a place in the hearts of the Chinese moviegoers. Salman Khan’s new release, Sultan has managed to grab a spot on 11,000 screens in China over 8,000 screens for his last release, Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

The film, releasing with the same title as in India, is targeting around 40,000 shows every day in the neighbouring nation. The film will hit Chinese theatres on August 31 and a few new posters of Sultan have been released to promote the film there.

Sultan found a place in the Rs 300 crore club in India and collected over Rs 500 crore worldwide. It now remains to be seen how much China contributes to the revenues.

Among the factors that signal Sultan’s successful run in China is the love for the sport of wrestling in the country. Another Indian film, Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal had broken box office records in China with collections of approximately Rs 1,030 crore ($150 million).

According to trade pundits, the cross-border friendship story showcased in Bajrangi Bhaijaan gained a lot of popularity in China, which helped the film cross the Rs 100-crore mark in its first week. The film also retained its number 5 position on the Chinese box office despite new releases.

Screen count with 40,000 shows per day could be another reason for Sultan's potential success in China. While in India screen count is the yardstick to measure the release size for a movie, China works on the basis of the number of shows granted to the film per day.

China has the overall capacity of having 250,000 shows a day. Indian films like Dangal had started with 30,000 shows and gone up to 60,000, Bajrangi Bhaijaan began with 17,000 and went up to 35,000, Hindi Medium and Secret Superstar had managed 44,000 and 54,000 shows, respectively.