With no new wide Hollywood tentpole releases until October, we’re in a period of holdovers, and local titles excelling in their home markets (and beyond), while Maverick is the Top Gun continues to soar and there’s a will it or won’t it question mark over Jurassic World Dominion‘s shot at getting to $1B global.
Overall, it was a fairly active weekend at the international box office, with Germany in particular seeing uplift on a handful of titles — Constantin’s Guglhupfgeschwaderis still No. After three frames, it is still No.
For Hollywood, Universal/Illumination’s Gru, the Rise Of MinionsThere was a 37% rise in GermanyThis session (29.8M cume), was the most important in international play. $26.7MIn 83 overseas markets, including debuts in China or Italy. The overseas cume is $483.6MIn line with Minions Despicable Me 3. Global is $833.6M.
Gru and his crew won the largest opening day for the pandemic in animated titles on Friday. ChinaThis is impressive, considering the Chinese authorities only gave the date 11 days before. Ultimately, Rise of GruThe weekend’s gross was $11.8M. It was up against a local animated entry. New Gods: Yang Jian(which won at RMB.134M/$19.6M). GruStrong social scores. It is also the highest-rated animated title in Hollywood during the pandemic.
Rise Of Gru is the only Hollywood film releasing in China of late — and for the foreseeable future — while an estimated 17% of locations (including 25% of Shanghai cinemas) are currently still closed due to Covid restrictions. There are two more weeks of school holiday, and we’re told that schools are demanding families take precautions to help stop the spread before children return to classrooms.
In Italy, the origins story opened on Thursday with an 86% share, grossing $1.6M from 446 cinemas. Excluding previews, this was the biggest Universal pandemic opening day, and the 4th biggest Universal opening day of all time as well as the 3rd biggest of the pandemic. The opening of the pandemic was accompanied by a weekend total of $6.1M.Despicable Me 3.Rise Of Gru is on track to become the biggest Hollywood animation of the Covid era in Italy.
FranceThe increase in sales was 6% ($22.7M so far) and the UKFlat with a running total of $48.8M (in line)MinionsandDM3at the same point).
Sony’s third weekend of Brad Pitt-starrer Bullet Train saw a good dip at just -29% internationally for a weekend total of $12.1Min 61 overseas markets. The offshore cume is$81M with global reaching$150M.
Germany saw a 9% increase while the UK dropped 4%.FranceandAustraliawere down just 25% 29%, respectively, as they held the top spots in their third weekends of release. Korea and Italy launch next weekend followed by Japan on September 1.
In other Sony news, a combination of Sony Pictures Releasing International and Crunchyroll markets got their first look at Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero this session with $12M from 29 overseas. Of that, the Sony-owned Crunchyroll clocked $535K in Australia and $117K in New Zealand. SPRI markets contributed $11.2M with No. 1s across the board in Latin America. Mexicolaunched to $3.7M, andArgentinadid $1.5M. In Europe, theUKgrossed $800K, and theNetherlandsadded $150K. The Middle East delivered $420K as a region. The worldwide weekend in those overseas markets and North America was $32M.
Super Hero originally opened in June in Japan, grossing about $18M. Upcoming key markets include Germany, Spain, Korea, Italy and France.
Crunchyroll will also be releasing Toei’s One Piece Film: Red in North America, Australia and New Zealand this fall. The anime franchise’s 15th feature is already the highest grossing of the series in Japan, now with an estimated 9.28B yen ($68M) after releasing on August 6.
Sticking with Japan, this could be the swing market on Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion. Currently at $984.7M through Sunday globally, the movie released in Japan as the last of its majors four weekends ago. The market tends to leg out and is currently doing the bulk of the work with holdovers still contributing. This frame was worth a little over $3.14M overall, with $2M from Japan where it has grossed $37.2M to date, performing in line with Fallen Kingdom at the same point and surpassing the lifetime of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
So does it get to $1B? It’s not a lock, but it’s also not out of the realm of possibility. If the dollar were not quite so strong, JWD would already be across the mark.
Universal’s Nope will go to Japan next weekend. This frame it rolled out in 38 further markets with new openers grossing $5.5M. The total session including a 37% drop from holdovers was good for $9.4M. The offshore cume is $19.3M with global at $133M. Korea was the major debut at $2.2M for the biggest horror launch of the year. Spain started off with $640K and Netherlands $448K, in line with Get Out. The UK has cumed $5.5M to date, followed by France at $2.4M and Australia with $2.3M. Mexico and Brazil are also on deck this week.
As reported earlier, Top Gun: Maverick, continues to fire in many majors — including significant week-on-week increases in Germany and the UK. The weekend as a whole was $8.7M in 63 markets for $720M international and $1.403B globally.
Warner Bros’ DC League Of Super-Pets woofed up $6M in 70 markets this session for a 23% drop. As with elsewhere, there were increases in a number of markets including France (+6%), Netherlands (+17%) and Germany (+47%). The UK, Brazil and Mexico saw soft drops. The international running cume is $62.9M for $130.4M global with Japan, Italy and Australia still to go.
Also of note, Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Love And Thunder crossed $400M overseas on Thursday, and added $4.9M in 46 offshore markets this weekend for a $405M international cume. Global is now $737.1M. And, Sony’s Where The Crawdads Sing is nearing $100M worldwide.
LOCAL-LANGUAGE & IMAX
While the studios are not releasing any major new wide films overseas until October, some markets are excelling with a mix of Hollywood and local titles. In July, Korea was up 150% on last year’s same period, nearly reaching pre-pandemic levels. Top Gun: Maverick was the top grosser for the month, followed by Thor: Love And Thunder and local sequel Hansan: Rising Dragon which released at the end of the month. That movie has now grossed $51.1M through Sunday, landing at No. 2 this weekend behind Hunt, the directorial debut of Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae at $23.5M after 12 days, per Kobiz figures.
IMAX is also benefiting from the diversity of its slate across multiple local titles. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is at $800K in the format internationally with 33 screens coming on line this week in Germany, India, Indonesia and Dominican Republic. China’s New Gods: Yang Jian did $1.75M in IMAX this weekend, though it shared the network’s screens with Minions (which did $380K in China IMAX. One Piece Film: Red has also been a big breakout for IMAX in Japan with $4.3M to date, the 6th highest-grossing local title ever for the format in the market. In Taiwan, OPR opened to $230K on 10 IMAX screens for 15% of the nationwide total.
Other global IMAX cumes after this weekend include Top Gun: Maverick’s $103.4M, Minions: The Rise Of Gru‘s $13M, Nope’s $12.1M and Bullet Train’s $7.1M.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Where The Crawdads Sing (SNY): $4.1M intl weekend (23 markets); $20M intl cume/$97.7M global
Beast (UNI): $2.8M intl weekend (38 markets); $10.3M intl cume/$21.9M global
Elvis (WB): $2M intl weekend (68 markets); $125M intl cume/$269.7M global