‘MONKEY KINGDOM’- Sri Lanka in Disney’s Spotlight in the US

Apart from the aggressive marketing that Sri Lanka tourism has engaged in the focused markets of China and Germany the country is set to receive a massive boost from in its seventh key market USA with a top billed Disney movie 'Monkey Kingdom’, a feature-length wildlife documentary billed to debut in US cinemas on 17 April and rolled down to 12,000 cinemas across the country. Filmed almost entirely around Polonnaruwa, the film documents the life of a troop of wild toque-macaque monkeys (rilaw), including breathtaking action sequences set in the precincts of the sacred city.

The film is directed by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill, who were responsible for other Disney blockbusters such as ‘Earth’, which grossed more than $100 million at the box office. Their last movie 2012 movie ‘Chimpanzee’, filmed in West Africa, grossed almost $35 million, a record for a wildlife documentary, which had the potential for Sri Lanka to be a top of the mind brand among families that have kids said the minister for Sports and Tourism Navin Dissanayke