‘Alien: Covenant’ Chomps $40M Bow; ‘Guardians 2’ Crosses $630M WW; ‘Dangal’ Soars In China – International Box Office
TUESDAY UPDATE, writethru with actuals: Offshore rollout began this weekend on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, luring $40.1M worth of moviegoers to see the Xenomorphs in action in 34 markets. That’s about $2M down from the Sunday estimates, but is not attributable to any one market and is squarely within projection for the pic which Fox unleashes in 52 more offshore hubs next frame. The Prometheus sequel bowed to No. 1s in 19 this session, and overall was the No. 2 movie at the international box office. It goes domestically on May 19.
Korea leads offshore play at $7.1M, followed by the UK ($6.4M), France ($4.4M), Australia ($3M) and Mexico ($2.4M). Alien: Covenant‘s opening weekend is 4% bigger than Mad Max: Fury Road for the same bucket of markets and at current exchange rates.
There were a number of moving parts at offshore turnstiles this session. As it suffered domestically, Warner Bros’ King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword debuted in some key overseas markets. Slightly up from Sunday estimates, it extracted $29.6M in its launch with No. 1s in 23 markets, the only major being Russia. China went medieval on the movie with just $5.2M to start.
Disney/Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, meanwhile, is in its third weekend offshore. Adding $52M overseas this session, GOTG2 now has a worldwide cume of $632.3M.
One of the more interesting situations to arise this session is the Chinese box office performance of Aamir Khan’s Dangal. The Bollywood superstar’s latest film, a sports drama with a strong female-empowerment message that released in most markets at the end of 2016, already became the No. 1 Bollywood release ever in India earlier this year. Although the recently released Telugu title Baahubali 2: The Conclusion is the biggest Indian film ever worldwide, Dangal — thanks to China — has now become the second Indian movie ever to cross 1000 crores ($150M) globally, as Bollywood Hungama notes.
In the Middle Kingdom, Dangal overtook GOTG2 this weekend with a larger number of showings and an estimated $31.5M for about $60M to date there. It had come in No. 2 last frame behind GOTG2’s debut and picked up steam. It is the top-grossing Indian movie ever in the market. There is a lot of social media chatter about the film, and reviews are positive. The star traveled to the Beijing Film Festival in April to promote Dangal and is said to be seen as a symbol of the Indian industry in China. This could also bode well for another titan of Bollywood, Salman Khan, whose Tubelight is expected to have a wide release there this summer and co-stars Chinese actress Zhu Zhu.
There are no major wide studio releases next frame, although we’ll see expansion on Alien: Covenant and King Arthur. The Cannes Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday.
Breakdowns on the above and more have been updated below with actuals throughout.
NEW
ALIEN: COVENANT
The latest in the Alien franchise sees Ridley Scott return after 2012’s Prometheus, to which Covenant is a sequel. It also acts as a prequel to the seminal 1979 original Alien whose tag line was “In space, no one can hear you scream.” In 34 markets this frame, $42M worth of moviegoers were heard, with No. 1s in 19 markets, including the key plays of Korea and the UK. The opening is 4% bigger than comp Mad Max: Fury Road in the same markets and at today’s exchange rates.
Prometheus went on to $403M global, $277M from international. It was a summer release and also played in 3D. Covenant is in 2D only.
Korea leads offshore play at $7.2M, followed by the UK ($6.4M), France ($4.5M), Australia ($3.1M) and Mexico ($2.5M). All were No. 1 bows save Mexico. Other key No. 1 starts Xenomorphed in Spain ($1.9M), Hong Kong ($1.8M) and Italy ($1.3M).
In IMAX, there were 157 screens scaring up $2.1M in 28 markets. In the UK, eight of the Top 10 runs were in IMAX. Next week continues its global IMAX expansion into 32 additional territories including select locations in North America. Overall, Covenant opens in 52 overseas markets next frame, including Germany, Russia and Sweden. China is June 16.
KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD
Opening in 51 markets, Warner Bros’ Guy Ritchie-helmed origins story pulled $29.6M out of about 19,463 screens. WB says there were 23 No. 1s offshore, including in Russia, Holland, the UAE, Indonesia, Thailand and Scandinavia. Russia and the UAE are the biggest openings ever for Ritchie.
However, the total also includes China where King Arthur trotted to just $5M on 7,200 screens. As it can with some, the Middle Kingdom will not be this film’s knight in shining armor.
Overall, last year’s The Legend Of Tarzan is seen as the primary comp, and while King Arthur topped that film’s opening in Russia by 52%, Kingsman: The Secret Service has also been plugged in as a comp in key markets. Both movies do have “King” in the title…
Here’s a rundown:
Russia: $5.2M from 2,514 screens for No. 1; 52% over Legend Of Tarzan and Snow White And The Huntsman; 39% over Kingsman; 10% over Mad Max: Fury Road.
Germany: $2.1M on 819 screens for No. 2; even with Legend Of Tarzan; 5% over Kingsman. Mexico: $2M on 1,530 screens for No. 3; on par with Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes 2; 44% over Kingsman. Indonesia: $1.5M on 353 screens for No. 1 (6-day opening); on par with Legend Of Tarzan; bigger than Kingsman (+29%), Fury Road (+27%), twice both Sherlocks. Thailand: $1.1M on 592 screens for No. 1. Up on Kingsman (+28%) and the Sherlocks (+111%/+68%). UAE: $1M from 148 screens for No. 1, topping SWATH by 30%. Italy: $966K on 520 screens for No. 2.
France, the UK, Korea and Australia are all on deck next frame, but the domestic performance will resonate internationally and with China already DOA, one rival exec calls this weekend “an unmitigated disaster.” Anthony D’Alessandro has a comprehensive look at the road to Legend Of The Sword, here. This is a chilly start to summer for WB, but there’s much to look forward to, including Wonder Woman and Dunkirk.
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2
It only just passed $500M at the worldwide box office on Wednesday and with this weekend, Disney/Marvel’s sequel gunned across the $600M mark. The total currently stands at $632.3M globally. The offshore session was worth $52M in 56 material markets for a $383.8M cume. That’s already 8% above the total run of Guardians Of The Galaxy at today’s exchange rates. The overseas IMAX weekend was $5.5M for Star Lord on 626 screens to bring the cume to $27.3M.
The final market to release was Japan this past Friday. The $3M start is 15% above GOTG, 30% over Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 37% ahead of Thor: The Dark World.
China leads overseas play, despite GOTG2 falling to No. 2 as Dangal rose to the top spot this frame. The gross there is $79.8M and is expected to surpass the previous franchise entry in local currency. Same goes for Russia, the No. 3 market at $23.3M.
The UK is the No. 2 market at $42.7M with Germany in 4th at $23M and Australia rounding out the Top 5 with $20.2M.
Holds were good in many markets across Latin America and Europe including Finland (-27%), Denmark (-28%), Norway (-29%), Spain (-36%), Venezuela (-38%), Germany (-41%), Chile (-42%), Israel (-43%), Sweden (-43%), Belgium (-43%) and New Zealand (-43%).
The James Gunn-directed film has already surpassed its predecessor in India, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, Albania, Austria, Czech Rep, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK/Ireland.
GOTG2 has also outperformed the international lifetimes of such pics as Iron Man 2 ($312M) and Ant-Man ($339M). Globally, it’s ahead of the entire runs of Ant-Man ($519M), Iron Man ($585M) and Iron Man 2 ($624M).
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
In their 9th weekend at the international box office, Disney’s Beauty And The Beast twirled out another $7.5M for an international cume of $713.3M and a global total of $1.207B. It is th 11th highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide. Holds so long into the run are particularly impressive in the UK (-21%), Spain (-26%) and Germany (-45%).
Japan is a standout with a fourth consecutive No. 1 weekend ($5.6M) for a $71.5M cume. It is the No. 3 overall market, behind the UK’s $89.5M and China’s $85.8M.
THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS
Now in its 5th weekend, Universal’s high-octane smash is speeding to $1.193B in global box office this weekend. It is now the 12th highest grossing film of all time worldwide. This frame internationally drove up another $13.2M in 66 territories for a total of $978.1M. That slots FOTF into the 6th position at the offshore box office.
As the movie winds down in China – where it is the biggest import ever – it has a $385M (2.648B RMB) total. Japan in the 3rd session added $2M for a total of $27.6M to outpace the rest of the franchise. Other top markets are Brazil ($39.7M), the UK ($36.6M), Mexico ($36M) and Germany ($31.1M).
GET OUT
After crossing $200M globally last frame, Jordan Peel’s Universal/Blumhouse horror comedy added another $5.9M internationally in 40 markets. The cume to date overseas is $39.6M and the worldwide box office is $214.1M. France is doing particularly well with a 12-day total of $5M and Germany is at No. 3 in its sophomore session for an 11-day cume of $3M. Next weekend, Brazil, Colombia, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Spain and Uruguay pop in for a visit.
THE BOSS BABY
Another $9.2M from 73 markets gets DreamWorks Animation/Fox’s Baby close to $300M internationally with $294.6M to date. Holds are strong and in total, Boss Baby is running 16% bigger than Sing at the same point in release and at current exchange rates.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
NEW: Snatched (FOX): $3.1M intl weekend (8 markets); No. 2 in Australia/$2.55M; Holland $268K
Smurfs: The Lost Village (SNY): $2.7M intl weekend (58 markets); $136.7M intl cume
Going In Style (WB): $1.7M intl weekend (44 market); $33M intl cume
Split (UNI): $712K intl weekend (10 markets); $138.1M intl cume
Sing (UNI): $426K intl weekend (4 markets); $361.5M intl cume
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