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. 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.
United States and Canada 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 Wonderlands $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. 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. 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. 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. 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%). 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 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. and in France with $8.1M. 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).
Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes, a
review aggregator, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 329 reviews and an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "As lovely to behold as it is engrossing to watch,
The Jungle Book is the rare remake that actually improves upon its predecessors—all while setting a new standard for CGI". On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while
PostTrak reported moviegoers gave it an overall positive score of 92%. Ninety-seven percent of the audience gave the film an A or a B, and it got A's from both the under- and over-25 crowd and A+ among those under 18 years of age and also for the over-50 audience. Andrew Barker of
Variety felt that this version "can't rival the woolly looseness of Disney's
1967 animated classic, of course, but it succeeds on its own so well that such comparisons are barely necessary".
Robbie Collin of
The Telegraph gave the film four stars out of five, and deemed it "a sincere and full-hearted adaptation that returns to Kipling for fresh inspiration".
Alonso Duralde of
TheWrap says: "This 'Book' might lack the post-vaudeville razzamatazz of its predecessor, but director Jon Favreau and a team of effects wizards plunge us into one of the big screen's most engrossing artificial worlds since
Avatar".
Peter Bradshaw, writing for
The Guardian, gave the film four out of five stars and felt that the film had a touch of
Apocalypto in it, finding the plot elements to be similar to those in
The Lion King. He wrote that the film was "spectacular, exciting, funny and fun" and that it "handsomely revives the spirit of Disney's original film". Pete Hammond of
Deadline Hollywood wrote that the film had laughs, excitement, an exceptional voice cast and, most importantly, a lot of heart, calling it a cinematic achievement like no other. He particularly praised Murray's performance and the visual effects, deeming it "simply astonishing". Chris Nashawaty of
Entertainment Weekly graded the film an "A−", calling it one of the biggest surprises of 2016. He, however, felt the two songs were rather unnecessary and distracting, and believed the film to be a little too frightening for children.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan remarked that "
The Jungle Book is the kind of family film calculated to make even those without families wish they had one to take along".
The Village Voices Bilge Ebiri hailed the film as fast and light and that it "manages to be just scary enough to make us feel the danger of solitude in the middle of a massive jungle, but never indulgent or gratuitous". Cath Clarke of
Time Out compared Elba's character of Shere Khan to
Scar from
The Lion King, calling him "baddie of the year". Matt Zoller Seitz of
RogerEbert.com also had high praise for Elba's portrayal of Shere Khan stating: "His loping menace is envisioned so powerfully that he'd be scary no matter what, but the character becomes a great villain through imaginative empathy. We understand and appreciate his point-of-view, even though carrying it out would mean the death of Mowgli". Sarah Ward of
Screen International wrote that the level of detail on display in the film "is likely to evoke the same jaw-dropping reaction as
James Cameron's box office topper".
Entertainment Weekly called it "one of the few 3D movies that actually benefit from being in 3D". The film also had a positive reception from Indian contemporary critics and publications, such as
The Times of India,
The Hindu,
India Today,
The Indian Express, and
The Economic Times. However, some reviewers criticized the inconsistent tone of the film and the director's indecision to stick to one vision.
The New York Times Manohla Dargis was less enthusiastic. Sam C. Mac of
Slant Magazine wrote: "Jon Favreau draws heavily on his film's animated predecessor for plot, characterizations, songs, and set pieces, but doesn't know how to fit these familiar elements into his own coherent vision". Josh Spiegel of Movie Mezzanine also echoed these feelings, saying that the film "stumbles because the people involved aren't willing to fully commit to either making a near-shot-for-shot remake or going in a completely different direction". Rene Rodriguez of the
Miami Herald felt that the film was soulless, writing that "the better these talking beasts look, the more the film resembles a gorgeous screen saver. You admire
The Jungle Book, but you can't lose yourself in it".
Accolades == Future ==