Box office
The film became a huge financial success and a sleeper hit. It briefly held the record for the biggest remake of all time until the studio's own Beauty and the Beast surpassed it the following year. It grossed $364M in the United States and Canada and $602.5M in other countries for a worldwide total of $966.6M, against a budget of $175M. Worldwide, the film was released across 28,000 RealD 3D screens and had an IMAX worldwide opening of $20.4M from 901 IMAX screens, a new record for a PG film. It grossed a total of $39M in IMAX screens worldwide. On May 13, it became the second film of 2016 (after the studio's own Zootopia) to pass the $800 million mark. On June 10, it became the third film of 2016 after Zootopia and Captain America: Civil War to pass the $900M mark. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $258M, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the sixth-most-profitable release of 2016.
Projections for its opening weekend in the United States and Canada were continuously revised upwards, starting from $60M to as high as $88M, with female and older male quadrants being the prime draw. The Jungle Book was shown across 4,028 theaters of which 3,100 theaters (75%) were in 3D, including 376 IMAX screens, 463 premium large format screens, and 145 D-Box locations. It opened on Friday, April 15, 2016, on around 9,500 screens across 4,028 theaters, and earned $32.4M, the fourth-biggest April Friday. This includes $4.2M from Thursday previews, the biggest preview number for a Disney live-adaptation film (tied with Maleficent), an almost unheard-of for a PG title which rarely attracts many ticketbuyers later in the night. In total, it earned $103.3M in its opening weekend, exceeding expectations by 40% and recorded the biggest PG-rated April opening (breaking Hop's record), the second-biggest Disney live-action adaptation opening (behind Alice in Wonderland), and the second-biggest April opening (behind Furious 7). It also performed exceptionally well in both 3D and IMAX formats, where they both generated an income of $44M and $10.4M of the film's opening-weekend gross, respectively, the later broke the record for the biggest April Disney release IMAX opening. Notably, it also became the only second PG-rated release to ever open above $100M (following Alice in Wonderland) and the third film of 2016 overall to open above $100M (following Deadpool and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). It earned $130.7M in its first full week, the second-biggest for a Disney live-action adaptation, behind only Alice in Wonderland's $146.6M seven-day gross.
Buoyed by excellent word of mouth and benefiting from spring break, it fell only by 40% in its second weekend earning $61.5M, still maintaining the top position and far surpassing newcomer The Huntsman: Winter's War. That puts The Jungle Book in the top-fifteen second weekends of all time and in terms of films that opened above $100M, it scored the fourth-smallest drop behind Shrek 2 (−33%), Spider-Man (−39%), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (−39%). Of those numbers, $5.6M came from IMAX shows for a two-weekend cumulative total of $18.4M which represents about 10% of its entire North American box office gross. It crossed $200M on its twelfth day of release and managed to hold the top spot for the third consecutive weekend with $43.7M from 4,041 theaters (an addition of 13 more theaters), a fall of only 29%, outgrossing the next six pictures combined (including the openings of three newcomers) and recorded the sixth-biggest third weekend of all time. Moreover, the 29% drop is the smallest third-weekend drop (from its second weekend) for a $100M opener ever. Disney added an additional 103 theaters for the film's fourth weekend of release which propelled its theater count to 4,144 theaters, but nevertheless, it was overtaken by Disney's own Captain America: Civil War after experiencing a 50% decline. It passed $300M on its 30th day of release, on May 14, as it continued to witness marginal declines in the wake of several new releases weekend after weekend. It made 3.53 times its opening weekend numbers, which is one of the biggest of all time for a film opening above $100M. It became one of the few surprise hits and one of the highest-grossing films of the year, alongside Finding Dory, The Secret Life of Pets, and Zootopia, centered around talking animals to dominate the year-end chart.
The film was released in approximately 70 countries. Outside the U.S. and Canada, it opened across 15 markets and 69 IMAX screens a week ahead of its US debut, and faced notable competition from newcomer The Huntsman: Winter's War and holdover Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the latter of which was entering its third weekend. The reason behind the divided release pattern was because Disney wanted to get some space before Captain America: Civil War releases in early May, as well as availing school holidays and avoiding local competitors. It eventually grossed $31.7M, debuting at first place in all markets and second overall at the international box office, behind Dawn of Justice, which was playing across 67 markets. In its second weekend, it expanded to an additional 49 countries (88% of its total marketplace) and grossed $138.6M from 64 countries, easily topping the international box office, a bulk of it came from China. Approximately 63% or $85M of that came from 3D screenings, with the largest 3D opening haul represented by China (98%), Germany (83%), Brazil (73%), Russia (60%), Mexico (47%), and the UK (39%). Ten million dollars alone came from 525 IMAX screens, a record for a PG and April release. It further continued to hold the top spot in its third weekend after adding another $98.9M from 53 territories, falling only by a marginal 32%. IMAX generated another $6.1M from 484 IMAX theaters for a three-weekend total of $20.6M. After three straight No. 1 runs, it was finally dethroned by the studio's Captain America: Civil War in its fourth weekend.
In India, it scored the second-biggest opening day for a Hollywood film, earning $1.51M (behind Avengers: Age of Ultron) from around 1,500 screens and went on to score the second-biggest Hollywood opening weekend of all time, with $8.4M from 1,600 screens, behind only Furious 7 in terms of local as well as U.S. currency, performing better than expected and its initial $5–6M opening projection. Its opening weekend in India alone surpassed the entire lifetime total of Disney's other live-fantasy adaptations—Cinderella, Maleficent, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Alice in Wonderland—in the country. It then went on to score the biggest opening and single week for a Hollywood film with $15.1M. In its second weekend, it dropped just by a mere 40% to $4.97M. In just ten days, it became the fourth-highest-grossing Hollywood film there with $21.2M. On Wednesday, April 19—its twelfth day of release—it surpassed Furious 7 to become the highest-grossing Hollywood/foreign release of all time there. By the end of its theatrical run, the film made an estimated $38.8M with half of its revenue—58%—coming from local dubbed versions, compared to Avengers: Age of Ultron, which saw 45% of its revenue from dubbed versions.
In China, where the film was locally known as Fantasy Forest, expectations were high, with projections going as high $154–200M or more. Ultimately, it was unable to hit these marks. Before the release of the film in the state, Disney had a very successful run at the box office with Zootopia the previous month, in which anthropomorphic animals were the central figure. Forbes noted that The Jungle Book was precisely the sort of film that Chinese audiences love with its 3D visuals, heartwarming story, and talking animal cast. It earned around $12M on its opening day, including $300,000 worth of previews from 65,000 screenings. Buoyed by good word of mouth and positive reception (albeit mostly from audiences with polarized reception from Chinese critics), it rose 72% on its second day to $20M. Through its opening weekend it grossed $48.5M, including $5.1M from 279 IMAX screens, a new record for April release. Its opening marked the biggest Walt Disney Pictures film opening ever, the second biggest for a family film (behind Kung Fu Panda 3), the second-biggest April debut (behind Furious 7), and the fourth-biggest Disney opening (behind Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens). It topped the daily box office through the whole opening week and went on to remain at the top of the box office for a second weekend, after dropping by a mere 20% to $29.8M, despite facing some competitions. It ended its run there with a total of $150.1M after 30 days of playing in theaters, adding $1.2M on its last day. Albeit falling just below expectations, it nevertheless emerged as a huge financial success and becoming the fourth-biggest Disney release there.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it had an opening weekend total of £9.9M ($14.1M) from 594 cinemas and in France with $8.1M. Elsewhere, the highest openings were recorded in Russia and the CIS ($7.4M), Germany ($5.1M), Spain ($3.9M), Australia ($2.8M), Argentina ($2.3M), and in Malaysia, where it scored the biggest opening weekend for a live-action Disney film with $2.3M. In the UK, it became the first film of 2016 to earn over £5M in three straight weekends and the first film since Jurassic World, Spectre, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (all 2015 films) to achieve such an accomplishment, and the first film of 2016 to earn above £40M ($58M). In South Korea, it faced competition with Warcraft, but ended up debuting atop the charts with $6.2M. It has so far grossed a total of $18M there.
It opened in Japan on August 11, alongside the superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse and delivered a four-day opening of $6.2M from 676 screens ($3M in two days), debuting at second place behind The Secret Life of Pets. Although the opening figure was considered mediocre, Deadline Hollywood noted that Japan is a market that can see big multiples. It fell just 30% in its second weekend earning $2.1M for an 11-day total of $13.7M.
In total earnings, its biggest markets outside of the U.S. and Canada were China ($150.1M), the United Kingdom ($66.2M) and India ($38.8M). It was the highest-grossing film of 2016 in Europe with a total of $209M, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in India (although it was later surpassed by Sultan, in terms of Hollywood/imported films, it is still the biggest).
