'The Jungle Book' News Update and Release Date: Walt Disney Film Is A Runaway Hit

By R. Siva Kumar - 18 Apr '16 16:55PM

It was an awesome opening for The Walt Disney Co.'s "The Jungle Book", with $103.6 million in North America. It has turned out to be the second biggest April debuts at the box office.

This is not only a feather in the cap for the studio, but it also gives life to the animated classics.

It was Jon Favreau's magical display of Disney's 1967 animated version of Rudyard Kipling's classic that created the success. It brought out a simple 20th-century dream tale with computer-generated imagery and big-screen razzmatazz. There was 42 percent of the film's domestic sales that owed their success to 3-D and premium-format screens.

The Warner Bros, understanding the market, have postponed the release of their own version of "The Jungle Book" to October 2018.

Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore, commented: "To have this incredible vault of content that they can go back to and reimagine, retool and recreate for today's audiences just gives them a depth and breadth of films that is almost unparalleled," Dergarabedian said. "Disney has this knack for taking something that's very old and making it new again."

There is another string of Disney hit movies. While "Cinderella," ''Alice in Wonderland" and ''Maleficent" have been big successes, "Cruella De Ville" and "Peter Pan" are being developed. "Beauty and the Beast" will be out next March.

"There's some consistency that's happened here in the last few years as we've really made this a priority and a strategy from a company perspective," said Disney distribution head Dave Hollis, who lauded production president Sean Bailey for managing the live-action adaptations. "He's been able to do it in a way that really makes them contemporary and, certainly in this case, fully utilizes available technology.

"We've got a lot more of these stories to tell."

The movie has not only garnered $175 million but got bright reviews from critics. Being the second biggest April opening, behind only "Furious 7's" $147.2 million debut, it has picked up about $136.1 million overseas. In just India, it is the third Hollywood blockbuster in 10 days and has touched $20.1 million.