Buoyed by the success of Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), starring Salman Khan, Yash Raj Films' Sultan (2016) is now set to be released in China on 31 August 2018. Directed by Ali Abbas Zaffar, Sultan featured Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma as wrestling champions who fall in love and later drift apart when a personal tragedy strikes.
The past success of both Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and Dangal (2016), another wrestling film, makes Sultan's China release inevitable. Bajrangi Bhaijaan earned $2.25 million (Rs15 crore, approximately) in the Middle Kingdom with 20,302 screenings, while Dangal made $2.49 million (Rs17.07 crore, approximately) with 30,364 screenings.
Sultan will face some stiff competition, going up against Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), stars Tom Cruise, which will be released on the same day. The action franchise, Mission: Impossible, has performed well in China. The last film in the series Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015), also directed by Christopher McQuarrie, earned $135 million in China, the top international market for the film.
Still, the opening up of more releases of international and Hollywood films in August is seen as a positive move. In past years, only Chinese language films were allowed to be released at theatres in China and this mid-summer period was referred to as a blackout period for non-Chinese films.