Shah Rukh Khan's King is aiming at Christmas overseas screens

Shah Rukh Khan's King is headed to international theatres on December 24. Red Chillies Entertainment and Marflix Pictures picked Christmas Eve on purpose: diaspora families already treat that night as a cinema outing, and Hollywood is fighting for the same screens.

Dubai-based Phars Film will release the film overseas. Red Chillies CEO Venky Mysore pointed to Phars' international network as the reason the partnership should help outside India. Trade reports this week put the Phars minimum guarantee at a record of about Rs 175 crore. Yash Raj Films had been lined up to take overseas on commission, the model it used for Pathaan and Jawan. Phars is based in the Middle East, where those two films already did heavy business. It usually keeps the Gulf and sells other territories to local partners.

T-Series has exclusive global commercial music rights for 50 years, through a deal Red Chillies routed via Zee Music Company. The songs and publishing stay with the label for five decades. Sachin-Jigar are writing the songs. Anirudh Ravichander is attached to the score. Some reports have mentioned a possible Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh collaboration. No track date is confirmed.

King reunites Khan with Siddharth Anand, who directed Pathaan. Deepika Padukone, Suhana Khan, and Abhishek Bachchan are in the cast. It is Khan's first theatrical film since Dunki in 2023. Pathaan and Jawan each took about $49 million overseas that year across North America, the UK, Australia, and the Gulf. If the reported guarantee holds, King needs a similar turnout. It also opens while big Hollywood titles from a few days earlier are still eating screens.

Christmas Eve is when audiences in Mississauga, Edison, or Dubai will find the film in theatres. This week's deals decide who pays to put it there and who owns the songs afterward. The seats still have to fill.