Shah Rukh Khan officially started promoting his upcoming movie, King, on November 2, his birthday. He shared the first song about seven weeks before the film’s release. The action film reunites him with director Siddharth Anand after their 2023 blockbuster Pathaan. King reaches cinemas on December 24, during the Christmas holiday period. Its reported rights deals have already set a record overseas.
Phars Films reportedly secured overseas distribution rights with a minimum guarantee of ₹175 crore. According to HT, no Indian film had previously crossed ₹100 crore on comparable terms.
Pinkvilla reported that Pen Marudhar bought the Indian theatrical rights for ₹250 crore. The domestic deal ranks among the highest reported for a Hindi film. Together, the domestic and overseas distribution deals amount to ₹425 crore.
Netflix reportedly paid ₹150 crore for streaming rights. That figure can rise or fall depending on the film’s performance in cinemas. The satellite rights reportedly fetched ₹25 crore and the music rights brought in ₹65 crore.
If all five figures hold, ’s worldwide business before release comes to ₹665 crore. This amount comes from rights deals negotiated ahead of the film’s theatrical release.
King was originally reported to have a budget of ₹300 crore, the same as Jawan. Sacnilk and Pinkvilla reported that production costs rose to nearly ₹400 crore. The producers are reportedly spending close to ₹50 crore on promotion. Including ‘s estimated fee could lift the total cost to ₹550 crore.
The report puts the worldwide box-office target at around ₹800 crore gross. It estimates ₹500 crore in gross revenue in India and ₹300 crore in gross revenue overseas.
In net terms, it puts those figures at ₹400 crore and ₹150 crore, respectively. These projections draw on the usual domestic-and-overseas split for Shah Rukh’s films. Distributors face a separate recovery target tied to theatrical rights.
E4 Entertainment will handle the Hindi and Tamil theatrical versions in Kerala. The screen count and financial terms have yet to be disclosed. The Tamil version could help the film reach more viewers in the state. The Christmas release gives E4 a holiday window for both versions.
’s earlier films have already done strong business in Kerala. According to Sacnilk, Jawan earned around ₹13.90 crore gross there. It opened at ₹3.50 crore in the state, a record for Hindi films at the time. Pathaan collected over ₹13 crore gross in Kerala.
Red Chillies Entertainment and Marflix Pictures produced King. The film also stars Suhana Khan, Deepika Padukone and Abhishek Bachchan. The holiday release could bring competition for premium screens from major international films.
