Disney film “Monkey Kingdom” filmed in Sri Lanka crosses US$14.3mn ticket sales

May 18, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka tourism promotion office says, the Island is expecting a US tourism boom following the recently produced Disney documentary movie “Monkey Kingdom’s ticket sales crossing 14.



3 million US dollars as at day 28 in United States. “This is a big win for Sri Lanka as in the documentary category for a demand chain to bring in this footfall is a good start as we attract only a 45,000 visitors from the US,” Rohantha Athukorala, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism said. "We must see how the momentum picks up on the brand life cycle of "Monkey Kingdom" especially in our focused markets of Europe,” “If it does, we can make it a social networking tool for Sri Lanka tourism by linking tour operators and their families when launched at the cinemas and do focused promotions,” “We must use this vehicle to position Sri Lanka for its diversity and rich cultural heritage." “Monkey Kingdom” a feature-length wildlife documentary released in US cinemas on 17th April is due be rolled out to 12,000 cinemas across the US. Filmed around Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, the film documents the life of a troop of wild toque-macaque monkeys (rilaw). The movie talks about a gripping reality of a newborn monkey and its mother, struggling to survive within the competitive social hierarchy of the Temple Troop, a dynamic group of monkeys who live in ancient ruins found deep in the storied jungles of South Asia- in a beautiful island Sri Lanka The movie is directed by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill, who were responsible for other Disney blockbusters such as ‘Earth’, which grossed more than 100 million dollars at the box office, the promotion office said. This is the eighth True Adventure film and the sixth released theatrically by Disney nature, an independent film label of Walt Disney Studio.

The last such documentary fetched 35 million dollar ticket sales. Haley P, a film critic has commented on the film saying, “This is a great nature documentary, especially if you like monkeys and, contributions from ticket sales of this movie will help save the monkeys in south Asia.” The statement had also quoted an American kid saying that, “My favourite part of this movie is when all the monkeys are playing with each other and swinging from their homemade “original” jungle gym. I also like the part when the lower class runs out of food and have to find a way to survive. They locate the humans’ house and raid their kitchen.

They even confiscate all the eggs from the hen house!! It is hysterical to see a monkey running off with a sub sandwich.” Disney predicts that ‘Monkey Kingdom’ will be a hit with families everywhere and has released a 74-page educators’ guide with school projects, games and quizzes for children. Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 18 per cent to 157,051 in March 2015 from a year earlier with a surge in tourist arrivals from China and cumulative as at end 1st quarter to 478,838 with a growth of 13.6 per cent, data from the state tourism promotion office showed.







Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals were up 8.5 percent to 122,217 in April 2015, from a year earlier driven by growth in the Indian and Chinese markets, official data shows. Arrivals from USA, the Island’s 9th biggest market rose 20.

8 percent to 15,970 from Jan –Apr 2015 from 13,217 a year earlier.