<p>, a former trained in the style of , is a national wrestling champion residing in , . His average Indian father forces him to give up the sport to obtain gainful employment. Dejected he could not win a medal for his country, he vows that his unborn son will. Disappointed on having , he gives up hope. But when his older daughters and come home after beating two boys in response to derogatory comments, he realizes their potential to become wrestlers and begins coaching them. His methods seem harsh. He forces them to do grueling early morning workouts, and forcefully gets their hair cut short. Despite facing , he goes on training them in his makeshift mud pit. Initially, the girls resent their father for his treatment but soon realize that he cares for their future. Motivated, they willingly participate in wrestling tournaments where they defeat boys. Unable to afford wrestling mats, Mahavir uses mattresses and trains them in to prepare them for competitive events. Geeta goes on to win the junior and senior championships at the state and national levels before heading to the National Sports Academy in to train for the forthcoming . Once there, Geeta makes friends and begins to disregard the discipline taught by Mahavir under duress from her coach Pramod Kadam, whose training methods and wrestling techniques completely differ from her father’s. Therefore, she loses every match at the international level. During a visit home, she defeats a visibly exhausted Mahavir in a ferocious bout after egotistically mocking him. Babita reminds Geeta of her mistake and that she should respect Mahavir. Soon after, Babita wins the national championship and follows Geeta to the academy. After the two sisters have an emotional conversation in which Babita provides her encouragement, Geeta tearfully makes peace with Mahavir. Before the Commonwealth Games, Pramod forces Geeta to compete in the rather than in her usual 55 kg. Irritated upon learning this, Mahavir goes to Patiala with his nephew Omkar and begins coaching the girls secretly. Learning about this, and furious with Mahavir’s interference, Pramod wants the girls expelled; the sports authority issues a warning but allows them to continue. Mahavir is barred from entering the academy, and the girls are forbidden to go out. Determined to continue assisting his daughters, Mahavir obtains tapes of Geeta’s previous unsuccessful bouts and coaches her by pointing out her errors over the phone. At the games, competing in the , Geeta eases her way into the final. Mahavir constantly contradicts Pramod’s instructions while sitting in the audience, and she follows her father’s instructions instead. Just before the gold medal bout, jealous Pramod conspires to lock Mahavir in a room. In the bout, Geeta manages to win the first session but loses the second. Trailing 1–5 in the final session and with nine seconds left, she recalls the tactics taught by her father and a , and executes it on her opponent in the final three seconds, taking the score to 6–5 in her favor, thus winning the session and the bout 2–1. In the process, she becomes the first Indian female wrestler to win gold at the Commonwealth Games. Mahavir returns just in time to embrace his daughters, dashing Pramod’s hopes of obtaining credit before the news media. Divya V. Rao, a member of Disney’s creative team, read a newspaper article in 2012 about , who trained his daughters to become world champions. She thought this would make for a great film, and spoke about this to Kapur and other personnel. Disney approached to write and direct the story. Tiwari met Phogat and his daughters, who instantly agreed to tell the story. Tiwari worked on the script for close to a year with Gupta, Jain and Mehrotra before going to , the CEO of , and Kapur with the final script, while suggesting that play Phogat. Months prior to being approached for with the script, Khan had invited the Phogat sisters onto his television talk show , interviewing them on the first episode of in 2014. A few months after he interviewed them on , he was approached by Tiwari. Kapur and Tiwari went to Khan with the story, and Khan loved it in its first narration. Khan had just finished and had begun shooting for . He wanted to do the film after 5–10 years when he would turn 60 because the role demanded him to be 55 and he was still doing younger roles. But the story remained in his mind and a few months later, he called up Tiwari and asked him to narrate the script once again. After the release of in 2014, Khan announced that he would play the role of a wrestler in his next film titled directed by Tiwari, a cinematic biography of the former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. Khan, who was to produce the film himself with Disney, said to reporters, “Nitesh has written a wonderful story. The topic is very important, it’s very dramatic. It highlights the discrimination that is meted out to the girl child in India. The best part is that he has done it in a very entertaining manner. The heart of the story is emotional, but it also has a lot of humor. Raju Hirani has this unique way to tell a story where he says something socially very relevant but he tells his story in a very entertaining manner. Similarly, Nitesh has written a very entertaining lovely script, the dialogues are very entertaining. Each time I listen to the dialogues, I laugh a lot. I cry as well as laugh.” In March 2015, Junior Indian women’s wrestling team coach Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi was approached by Aamir Khan Productions to train Khan and the entire crew of . Bishnoi said about the film in a interview, “Very few Indians encourage women for wrestling, especially because of the uniform. This film will change that perception too. People would hopefully want to see their daughters taking up wrestling as a sport.” Khan lost some weight and took lessons and dialect training for the film. He played two distinct roles in the film: the 60-year-old wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, and the 20-year-old version of Phogat. Khan reportedly gained 30 kg and weighed 98 kg to play the role of the older Phogat, and then lost the weight to play the younger role in . The film was produced on a budget of (US$10.42 million). In March 2015, , and were being considered for the roles of Khan’s on-screen daughters. In April, Shaikh and Malhotra were cast as the daughters, who hailed from the Jat community of village of , . had participated in the in 2012, while Babita had won the gold medal in the in Glasgow. In June 2015, Wasim and Bhatnagar were roped in as child actors for the film. Khurana was also cast in the film, making his debut after a career as a VJ. served as the casting director, with being recruited to play the role of the villain. Khan’s nephew Pablo, who is the son of , was the film’s assistant director. auditioned for a role. also auditioned however she opted out citing scheduling conflicts. In August 2015, , who previously worked with Khan in , was approached for an important role. After auditioning 70 actresses for the role, Tanwar was brought on as Daya Kaur, the wife of Mahavir Singh Phogat. Ananya was chosen to play Sangita, the youngest daughter of Mahavir Phogat. In October 2015, , who appeared in a key role in , was selected to play a supporting role in the film. In an interview in January 2017, Rao stated that if Khan had declined the role, the only other choices would have been and . For the film’s dub, Khan initially approached to voice his role. Despite Rajinikanth enjoying the film, they both eventually decided against it, as they found Rajinikanth’s voice to be too recognizable to go along with Khan’s appearance. To prepare for the role, Shaikh and Malhotra watched several videos on wrestling to understand “how wrestlers move, walk, their body language”. Both Malhotra and Sheikh went through five rounds of auditions, physical training and workshops with Tiwari and Khan. They were trained by coach and former wrestler . From September 2015 to December 2015, Khan gained 9% fat, weighing around 98 kg for , and from January 2016 to April 2016, he regained the shape that he had opted for in and would hear the script for next future films, halting shooting of for said period. The shooting schedule of began on September 1, 2015. The villages of were given a Haryanvi transformation. The shooting took place in the villages of , , , and in and Haryana. The village of Dango, which is in the Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana, is veteran actor ‘s ancestral village. The first scene was shot on September 21, 2015, in Ludhiana with the presence of Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters, Geeta and Babita. On November 14, 2015, while shooting in , Khan suffered minor injuries resulting in muscle spasms in his back. On November 20, 2015, Khan collapsed after sustaining a shoulder injury on the set. After his recovery, he resumed shooting in on December 9, 2015. The team filmed in and around stadiums at the in Pune. At the time, the complex hosted the 2015 , and athletes of the and Slovenia women’s national roll ball team were recruited to play background athletes in the film. The team also shot some portions of the film in , Pune. On January 19, 2016, Khan and the entire crew of the film shot in , at , to film wrestling sequences. The crew then moved to to shoot sequences of and . The first schedule of shooting was also done in schools and in Dango village. The second schedule of the film started on June 16, 2016, at the Leel near village, in district. It is one of the largest villages in Punjab. Khan said, “When I came to Ludhiana, I was very fat. At that time, we shot for the scenes where Mahavir has become old. 85 percent of the film is about his ‘old’ look only. Now we are shooting for the portion when Mahavir was young.” With the film being set in multiple decades, the cinematographer Satyajit Pande and Ashirwad Hadkar experimented with a number of tests for skin tones and costumes during the pre-production stage. Natural light was majorly employed in the film. To portray the 1980s, the “sources [were kept] white-hot and the skin tones yellow-warm” for the day sequences, and “a consistent bulb warm tone was maintained” for the night sequences. With varying in the process of filming over an entire day starting early mornings until late evenings, visual effects plates were used and process employed. The music for the film is composed by , with lyrics penned by in Hindi, Rajesh Malarvannan in Tamil and Rajshri Sudhakar in Telugu. sang the film’s title track. The song “Dhaakad” was sung by rapper and became popular receiving 12 million views, in three days. Khan rapped his own version of the song and included it in the album. The soundtrack album was released on November 23, 2016, in Hindi and November 26, 2016, in Tamil and Telugu, under the label. The film’s is set to have a Japanese release published by on April 13, 2018. was released in the United States on December 21, 2016, and worldwide on December 23, 2016. The film was shown on an estimated 4,300 screens in India and 1,000 screens internationally. It was also released in and dubbed versions as . It was declared in six Indian states – , , , , and – to promote , a ‘s social campaign aiming to reduce the selective abortion of females, to protect girls, and to educate them. s second phase of release was in the of , starting with on March 24, 2017. was screened at the 7th , the first to be screened at the festival, in the non-competing panorama section in April 2017 as (Let’s Wrestle, Father!), and received a standing ovation. The screening was attended by a number of Chinese celebrities, including actress and actor . It released theatrically in on May 5, 2017, on 9,000 screens, “the widest ever release for an Indian film in any territory”, and opened to overwhelming response from critics and audiences alike. However, the film was trimmed by 20 minutes “to be in line with what the Chinese are used to.” The film released in on August 24, 2017. In June 2017, Khan announced plans to release the film in and . released in Japan on April 6, 2018, and was the first film to be co-distributed by Disney with Japan’s Gaga Corporation. Its title is ダンガル きっと、つよくなる ( ), which has some similarity to the Japanese title of ( ). A preview of was held on January 25, 2018, by the , whose chairman recommended the film as inspiration for the . Another preview screening was held for the during training camp in February 2018, and was well received by the audience. was released in on April 25, 2018. The film had its South Korean premier on April 23, 2018, which was attended by the female for the . On the website , 89% of 18 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. Critics often praised the portrayal of the subject matter in . Rachit Gupta of magazine gave the film a full five-star rating calling it “perfect in every sense of the word.” He added, “The film’s direction and writing is so riveting that it coaxes it’s the viewer to stand up and applaud. Great editing and filmmaking technique aside, Dangal features wrestling matches that are authentic and real.” Meena Iyer of called it “inspiring and entertaining” and awarded a four-and-a-half out of five star rating. She commended the writing of being for “tongue-in-cheek quality, peppered with humour and several poignant father-daughter emotions.” Shubhra Gupta of gave a three out of five star rating and stated that the film worked on two parameters: that it is a “straight-forward film about a popular sport” and the “strong feminist statement about girls being the equal of boys, if not better, in an area they’ve never been seen, let alone accepted.” Saibal Chatterjee of gave the film four out of five stars and calling it a “hugely entertaining sporting saga”, pointed out that unlike other films, does not “go for broke in terms of melodramatic flourish” and that it refrains from “demonstrative chest-thumping and flag-waving”. He felt it blended “humour with intensity, and intimacy with spectacle, to perfection.” Ananya Bhattacharya of gave a four out of five-star rating and wrote, “the fights, emotional turmoil, the father-daughter tiffs, take centre-stage in .” She added, “Tiwari uses every single trope in the book of Bollywood sports films … with a freshness and expertise seldom seen.” Awarding the film a full five stars, Rohit Bhatnagar of called it “an unmissable epic”. Terming the narrative “engaging to the core”, he drew comparisons to , while commending the acting performances and cinematography. Sukanya Verma of felt that was “one of those few films that discuss strategy and technique in a manner that’s easy and entertaining to grasp”. Calling it an “exhilarating creation” and praising the acting performances, she wrote, “the raw, rough, visceral choreography of the fights … evokes sheer awe”. Lisa Tsering of felt the film is driven by “emotional resonance, technical artistry and compelling performances” while adding that “it’s so thrilling to watch. Not only do the family scenes ring true, but Tiwari approaches the wrestling sequences with intelligence and sensitivity.” There is not a trace of superstar-about Aamir Khan or a hint of vanity. For most of the film, he’s an old, overweight man. Given the Bollywood obsession with looking youthful and flaunting six-packs, this itself is an act of courage. But Aamir doesn’t just look the part. He also becomes it. He is by turns, ferocious and tender … It’s a masterful performance. While commending the acting performances of all the lead actors, most critics focused praise on Khan’s performance. Deepa Gauri of wrote that Khan “puts in such an earnest and inspired performance that [it] will go down in the history of as one of the finest.” wrote for that “[a]ll four actresses playing Geeta and Babita are strikingly good, and Khan stands out as the deeply flawed Mahavir.” Aniruddha Guha of thought that Khan captured the character’s “highs and lows with flourish” and called it a “truly great performance”, while adding that “the girls of ‘Dangal’ are a real find.” Rohit Vats of called it “best performance till date”. Raja Sen of Rediff.com felt Khan’s character was “both fascinating and flawed” and added that he is “a winner utterly sure of his beliefs who bends the world around him to his will. It is the performance of a lifetime”. Baradwaj Rangan of noted in his personal blog that Khan brought out the contradicting nature of the character “beautifully” and called it “one of his finest performances.” magazine’s felt that Khan, despite looking like a ” version of … with a tight-lipped mask, [he] finds a hundred ways to communicate emotion.” The film had its share of detractors who, while praising the narrative and performances, felt that the concept of portrayed in the film was flawed. They pointed out that the wrestler-father, in pursuit of his goal of winning a medal for the country, trains his daughters against their will. Reviewing for , wrote that the film despite aiming not to hide “chinks in the feminist armour”, it does not explore its “dilemmas and complexities” and only “brush[es] things under the easy nationalistic carpet” by “justifying everything with “nation before the individual” logic.” She complained of the “easy celebration of the supposed fall of patriarchy” depicted in the film and maintained that “men actually still remain very much in control.” The view was echoed by Vartika Pande, in her “Feminist Reading” of the film for , who wrote, ” ends up being a film about a patriarch at the helm who “empowers” women and obviously takes all the accolades.” ‘s Azad Essa, while reviewing the film for observed that “the elevation of women is still a manifestation of an unfulfilled male dream. It is the male coach who emerges as the true hero, and not the women.” Strong responses on similar lines from a small section of the Chinese viewers met the film, where, following the release, a fresh debate on feminism began. A viewer complained that the film “reeks of patriarchy and male chauvinism”. Criticism was also directed at other areas of the film such as the characterisation of the coach at the academy. Uday Bhatia of felt it was “incompetent and vindictive”. felt it was “shoddy” and that the “twist in the film’s final act … came off as completely unconvincing”. Tanul Thakur of also felt that the coach was “reduced to a caricature” and that “he simply exists because Aamir can become a hero.” Thakur wrote that the second half of the film was “repetitive and bloated” and that it uses “clichés … needlessly trying to inject drama”. In Hong Kong, Nicola Chan of rated the film 5 out of 5 stars. In Japan, Yuri Wakabayashi of gave the film a positive review. Yoshika Yamada of called the film a “masterpiece” and rated it 9 out of 10. rated the film 4 out of 5 stars. The film has received praise from a number of Japanese celebrities, including film critic Takeo Matsuzaki, , developer , authors and , and athletes including Olympic wrestlers and , professional wrestlers and , tennis player , and weightlifter . Upon release in Japan, it ranked first among early April 2018 releases in audience polls conducted by (4.22 out of 5 stars) and (93.3 out of 100). grossed 716 crore after its initial run. It included 511 crore in India and 205 crore overseas. After it collected a of 345 crore over its third weekend from release, it beat the record held by for the . Dangal became highest grossing Indian film worldwide in July 2017, with an estimated gross of by some sources, after its second phase of release in China and Taiwan. These numbers could be fake as there are no concrete source for these. In July 2017, a spokesperson for Aamir Khan denied the reports that Dangal has crossed ₹ 2,000 crore worldwide. The worldwide distributor share of was 525 crore as of 1 June 2017 . As of June 2017 , the worldwide gross of stood at US$307 million ( 2,000 crore). emerged as worldwide and the fifth highest-grossing non-English film of all time. The Movie was marketed by a Mumbai Based company named Spice PR owned by Prabhat Choudhary. is the first Indian film to gross $300 million worldwide, and one of the top 30 highest-grossing . is also the highest-grossing , and Disney’s fourth highest-grossing film of 2017. is also the first Indian film to exceed $100 million and 1,000 crore overseas, grossing around (US$224.04 million) in overseas markets by June 2017. collected 29.8 crore on its opening day of release in India, and recorded as the second highest non-holiday opening after . On its second day, the film collected (US$5.18 million) and on the third day collections were (US$6.31 million) taking the first weekend collections to (US$15.92 million). On 9 January 2017, Dangal became the highest grossing Indian film domestically, beating Aamir Khan’s previous film . It eventually grossed ( ) from all languages in India. The film’s footfalls at the domestic Indian box office was 37 million admissions. reported that would open in 331 North American screens, the hitherto highest for a Bollywood film, on 21 December 2016. Releasing in 279 theatres in the United States, it collected 282,280 and 42,816 from 24 theatres in Canada on the first day; an overall occupancy of 65 per cent was reported. It grossed 12.4 million in North America becoming the highest grossing Indian film there, to be surpassed only months later by . was released in 95 screens across the and was last reported to have collected (US$8.79 million) from the region. In the United Kingdom, the film grossed £2.6 million in December 2016, and ( ) by January 2017. It was the UK’s highest-grossing of 2016, as well as the highest-grossing film in the category of specialised films (foreign-language, documentary and classic films). It also received the highest opening in Australia for a Bollywood film (41 screens), and collected 528,000 in its first weekend, opening at second spot, behind . Having collected over (US$1.88 million) in the country, it became the highest grossing Indian film there. It also collected 460,000 ( 2.98 crore) in New Zealand. emerged as , when it had grossed around (US$224.04 million) overseas by June 2017, during its second overseas phase, while running in and . Upon theatrical release in , earned over 3 million and emerged as the , also becoming the highest grossing Indian film in the region. Its final gross in Taiwan was 167 million as of October 2017 , or (US$6.3 million). The film ran in the country for four months, with a final gross 101 times greater than its opening day gross, setting a record at Taiwan’s box office. In , a nation where Indian films were rarely shown, it became the highest grossing Indian film. It was initially released in six Chinese cities and on under the Chinese title 摔跤吧!爸爸 ( : , ” “). It grossed on opening day, and grossed in just three days from theatrical release. The collections totalled to 300 crore at the end of day nine from release, taking the overall collections past 1,000 crore, becoming the first Indian film to reach the mark. In its second week, it emerged as the in the country, outselling by 15 million according to China’s film ticketing portal . In the process, it beat the record held by the 2016 Japanese film for the highest grossing foreign-language non-Hollywood film in China. It held the number one position for the second consecutive week taking the overall collections past 1,500 crore. As the film neared its one-month run, it had a cumulative gross equal to 70 times its opening day figure, breaking the record set by (2016), following which the Chinese government gave the film a “rare extension” beyond the typical 30-day window. As of 4 July 2017 , had a cumulative China gross 87 times its opening day haul and 15 times its debut weekend, having been number one for 16 consecutive days and in the top three for 34 straight days, and out-lasting and out-grossing heavily marketed such as , , , , and . When its worldwide gross reached 1,930 crore on 11 June 2017, it became the fifth highest-grossing non-English film of all time. As of July 2017 , has grossed about 1.3 billion ( ) in China. Its overseas gross in China more than doubled its domestic gross in India. In China, became one of the of all time, the 8th highest-grossing foreign film, had the most consecutive days with a Â¥10 million ($2 million) gross (surpassing the 30 days of ) and $1 million gross (38 days), was the highest-grossing film in May 2017 (ahead of and ), and is the year’s second highest-grossing foreign film (after ). In the month of May, drew 35 million viewers at the Chinese box office. In 52 days, the film had 44,897,623 admissions at the Chinese box office. Khan’s earnings from were estimated to be (US$46.07 million), one of the for a non-Hollywood actor. By the end of its run in China, its final gross there was Â¥1,299.18 million, equivalent to ( ). This was about 86 times its opening day gross, a record in China’s box office history. In , where the film released on August 18, 2017, grossed US$428,201 as of 15 October 2017 . released in on 24 August 2017, and grossed 5.2 million ( 4.26 crore) in its opening weekend including previews. It opened at number-two at the Hong Kong box office in its first day, before rising to the top spot the following day. It held onto the top spot at the Hong Kong box office through to the week ending 17 September 2017. It surpassed the US$3 million milestone of Aamir Khan’s previous hit (2009) to become the highest-grossing Indian film ever in Hong Kong, where grossed 24.57 million (US$3.15 million, 20.42 crore) as of 26 September 2017 . By 2 October 2017, the film had grossed HK$25,430,761, equivalent to (US$3.27 million). As of 10 October 2017 , the film has grossed 23.1 crore (US$3.5 million) in Hong Kong. On its eleventh weekend, the film s gross in the city-state reached about HK$27 million, as of 6 November 2017 . The film has grossed HK$27,139,998 in Hong Kong, as of 19 January 2018 . In , where the film released on 6 April 2018, has grossed , equivalent to (US$438,663.83), as of 22 April 2018 . In , prior to release, the film was number-four at the box office on 24 April 2018, from preview screenings which grossed 154.41 million (US$144,443). On opening day, 25 April 2018, the film had grossed â‚©220 million ($205,800). It opened at number-three, behind Hollywood film and domestic . In eight days, grossed â‚©415.412 million, equivalent to $389,000 ( ). In 15 days, the film grossed â‚©564 million, equivalent to $528,000 ( ). As of September 2018 , the film has grossed â‚©906.42 million, equivalent to $850,000 ( ). Despite the hype created by the film prior to its release, it was not expected to perform very well on two accounts. Khan’s comment in November 2015 during the ongoing debate in India had sparked outrage and backlash from certain sections of right wing extremist groups. Despite his clarification that the statement made was taken out of context and publicised, the criticism, primarily on social media, continued to the extent that prior to the film’s release, campaigns calling for boycotting the film began, on grounds that Khan was “anti-national”. Secondly, after the government of India in November 2016, film businesses drastically fell as tickets were paid for mostly in cash, more so in the 8,500 single screen theatres of a total of 12,000, which accounted for 45 per cent of the total box-office revenue in India. Following the exercise, it was reported that business fell by 60 per cent and that 700 theatres even shut, including a few that deciding not to renew their licences, converted into . The earnings of films , and that were released around this time were significantly affected, and their corresponding producers had handed out limited to single-screen theatres, to keep losses at a minimum. However, that neither of the two affected the performance of was evident in how quickly the online ticketing platform hit its fastest one million tickets booked before the release. An average occupancy of over 60 per cent was reported on the first few days in . The film performed well on single-screen theatres as well that saw a surge, after two consecutive years of fall in business accentuated further by the demonetisation exercise. The film proved to be an end to the “dry spell” to cinemas across India. On 25 December, its third day from release, it earned 42.35 crore in India, setting a record for the highest ever single-day earning. After strong performance over its first two weeks, it emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film beating over its third weekend. performed particularly well in China. This was attributed partly to Khan’s popularity in China owing to the success of his previous films (2009) and (2014) there. When released in China, the country was only the 15th largest film market, partly due to China’s widespread pirate distribution at the time. However, it was the pirate market that introduced to most Chinese audiences, becoming a in the country. It became China’s 12th favourite film of all time, according to ratings on Chinese film review site , with only one domestic Chinese film ( ) ranked higher. Khan gained a large growing Chinese fanbase as a result. By 2013, China grew to become the world’s second largest film market (after the United States), paving the way for Khan’s Chinese box office success, with (2013), , and eventually . His TV show also had a cult following in China, establishing Khan as someone associated with quality films and committed to social causes. It was also reported that Chinese audiences could relate to the underlying social theme of in that it portrayed the success story of sisters in the backdrop of a and society, much like the conditions inherent in China. Another factor was that the film filled a “vacuum” created by lack of interest among filmgoers due to “poor quality of domestic films” and China’s ban on the “wildly popular” on television and streaming platforms due to South Korea’s acceptance of the deployment of the American , in August 2016. On the day of its release, 5 May 2017, had a screen share of 13.3 per cent with 30,000 screenings, much lower than , (43.9 per cent), the number one film for the previous week. On its fourth day, the first Monday, it rose to 17.7 per cent, and an occupancy rate of over 33 per cent was reported, as against a highest of 24.7 per cent for . Immediately after, aided by word-of-mouth publicity, people reportedly thronged the theatres, and screenings were increased to 35,000 on the second Saturday and 55,000 the following day. During the time, the film began trending in , where the #摔跤吧爸爸# (#LetsWrestleDad, the film’s Mainland Chinese title) has been mentioned over 470 million times. The run continued into its third week with 2.7 million tickets sold on the Sunday. With 27 per cent share in ticket sales, it was the highest earning film in China for the month. According to , is one of the highest-rated films on Chinese film sites and , which helped the film generate strong . The film’s word of mouth was also helped by discussion generated on Chinese social media sites such as and Sina Weibo, including discussion surrounding Khan’s previous work in film and television, as well as a number of prominent Chinese celebrities recommending to their fans, including stars such as , , , , and . According to , the film’s audiences were 59% female and 41% male, and the majority were in the 20–34 age group. Since s release in May 2017 through to October 2017, it has significantly out-grossed nearly every Hollywood film released in China during that time, with the only exception being . The big-budget Hollywood films that out-grossed include , , , , , , , , , , , and even starring . also surpassed the China gross of (2016). According to : “In this atmosphere of poor , Hollywood franchise fatigue and an ongoing ban on , has made the most of its opportunity to win over the Chinese film market.” Its gross in China is notably higher than the gross of any non-English foreign film released in North America, where the highest is (2000) with $128 million. The film has been released on several Chinese online streaming platforms. As of November 2018 , has been watched more than 400 million times across three Chinese streaming platforms: nearly 200 million on Tencent Video (140 million in Hindi, nearly 60 million in dubbed ), more than 144 million on (120 million in Hindi, over 24 million in Mandarin), and over 80 million on . , along with Japanese film (which overtook as the highest-grossing foreign film), began a</p>