UPDATE, WRITETHRU: This frame saw the first shift at the top of the international box office since Disney’s Beauty And The Beast initially twirled through offshore turnstiles last month. With a $36.1M weekend, Belle and her beau dipped from their No. 1 perch to No. 3 in the session, trailing Ghost In The Shell ($41.3M) and The Boss Baby ($37.5M).
But there’s no cause to weep for the star-crossed lovers and their enchanted pals. In its 4th weekend at the worldwide ball, BATB waltzed to a global cume of $977.4M, poised to cross $1B in the coming days. The Bill Condon-directed film also rose to $545.1M overseas, helping The Walt Disney Studios clock $1B+ in 2017 overseas receipts with $1.007B to date.
Meanwhile, coming off of a weekend largely led by China, Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliance’s Ghost In The Shell emerged as the No. 1 film overseas this frame. In the Middle Kingdom, the Scarlett Johansson-starrer earned $21.4M — higher than the actress’ 2014 actioner Lucy which bowed to $20M there.
In the Japanese launch, Ghost came at No. 1 in with $3.2M. While the film has been decently received there, and the market is slow burn, neither it nor China are expected to fully bail Ghost out.
The international cume is now $92.8M and some industry estimates see it landing between $150M and $170M at the end of the day. Particularly with The Fate Of The Furious revving up in China on Friday and then in Japan on April 28. Beauty And The Beast hits the latter on April 21.
Coming in 2nd this session, between Cyborg and Beast, is DreamWorks Animation/Fox’s The Boss Baby with $37.5M in 46 markets. The 3rd session pushed the tot across the $100M mark for $110.4M in overseas rattle-dazzle and 30 markets still to be delivered. At today’s exchange rates in the same suite, the family comedy is outpacing Trolls (+63%), Rio (+40%), The Croods (+20%) and Sing (+14%).
In other weekend activity, Sony Pictures Animation’s Smurfs: The Lost Village added $22M for a $42.1M offshore total thus far; and Warner Bros’ Kong: Skull Island pounded out another $16M for an overseas cume of $377.8M and a global warchest of $534.4M.
Also from Warner Bros, new entry Going In Style is coming in fashionably versus some comps and opened to $4.3M in 32 markets.
Setting a new milestone, Lionsgate’s six-time Oscar winner La La Land has reached $287.8M internationally to surpass the lifetime of The Hunger Games.
Beginning on Wednesday this week, Universal’s Fate Of The Furious gets off the starting block, muscling into eight offshore markets including Australia, France, Korea and Belgium. By the weekend it will be in 62 and on 688 IMAX screens internationally; 392 of those in China.
Breakdowns on the above films have been updated below.
NEW
GOING IN STYLE
Michael Caine, Alan Arkin and Morgan Freeman take over from George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg in Warner Bros’ remake of the 1979 heist comedy about a trio of lifelong friends who set out to rob a bank. The Zach Braff-directed pic that’s aimed at older audiences opened in 32 international markets with $4.3M on 2,486 screens.
Russia opened to $800K at No. 4 to more than double the results of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, followed by the UK with $688K on 454. The UAE knocked off $520K on 45 for No. 2 and surpassing all comps. Holland topped Last Vegas by 11% with $320K including sneaks and more than doubled Luc Besson’s The Family which WB is using as a comp. Brazil lifted $243K on 121 to top the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel sequel by 77%.
Releases this week include Spain and Germany. Australia and Mexico go the following frame.
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
GHOST IN THE SHELL
Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliance’s Scarlett Johansson-starrer generated $41.3M overseas this weekend ($41.1M in 54 Paramount Pictures International markets with the rest on Mister Smith’s books), bringing the international cume to $92.8M ($92.5M PPI). After grossing $40.1M in 52 markets last frame, Ghost notably materialized in China and Japan this session.
In the Middle Kingdom, where sci-fi does not over-index, the Rupert Sanders-helmed movie made $21.4M at 7,600 locations. That’s bigger than Johansson vehicle Lucy which bowed to $20M in 2014 and went on to $44.8M there. The film has a 6.6 rating on Douban and mid-weeks will count as The Fate Of The Furious will obliterate anything in its path when it opens on Friday.
In Japan, from whence the source material hails, the film opened to $3.2M at 327 cinemas. As Deadline reported last week, the whitewashing controversy seems to have sidestepped Japan because audiences are used to watching western actors, and word of mouth appears decent. While Japan is a leggy market of big multiples, Ghost also faces F8 there beginning April 28, just after Beauty And The Beast on April 21.
Sources are pegging the overseas final on Ghost in the $160M neighborhood.
In IMAX, Ghost In The Shell took $5.5M global for a $13.5M cume; the international weekend was $4.4M including $2.5M from 389 Chinese screens.
The Top 5 overall markets on Ghost are China ($21.4M), Russia ($8M), Korea ($5.5M), France ($5.3M) and the UK ($5.2M).
THE BOSS BABY
Rattling up $37.5M in 46 markets, the DreamWorks Animation Fox release handily crawled past $100M at the international box office. The total to date is $110.4M with 30 more markets to be delivered on this baby.
Despite warm, sunny weather in the UK, families went out for Alec Baldwin’s tough guy kid with $9.9M at No. 1 (including previews) and 49% bigger than The Croods, 47% bigger than Trolls.
Mexico held No. 1 in the 2nd session with $3.4M and a 40% drop ($12M cume). France likewise was No. 1 for the 2nd frame in a row, topping local newcomer A Bras Ouverts with $3.2M and a 37% drop from open ($9.8M cume). The next best results were in Brazil ($2.1M/$6.2M cume); Germany ($1.9M/$5M cume); and Australia ($1.8M/$8.8M cume — up 21% versus last weekend).
The lead market remains Russia at $24M. In comparable markets and at today’s exchanges, The Boss Baby is cooing louder than Trolls (+63%), Rio (+40%), The Croods (+20%) and Sing (+14%).
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
A $36.1M offshore frame helped lift Disney’s Beauty And The Beast to $545.1M overseas and $977.4M at the worldwide box office. Bill Condon’s live-action update on the 1991 classic animated film will cross $1B in the coming days. This weekend, it helped push The Walt Disney Studios past $1B at the 2017 international box office with $1.007B through today.
In 55 material markets, BATB dipped 46% in its 4th session with strong holds in several plays including Belgium (-7%), Poland (-16%), Germany (-27%), the Netherlands (-34%), Brazil (-38%), Australia (-39%) and China (-39%). The Emma Watson/Dan Stevens romantic tuner has clocked No. 1 for four weeks in a row in Germany, Korea, Austria, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Switzerland and the UK (the latter holds No. 1 based on this weekend’s FSS but Boss Baby is No. 1 with previews included). Other No. 1 holds include Australia, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia and New Zealand.
In Europe, the cume to date of $217M has surpassed the total regional runs of Deadpool, Zootopia, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad.
Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($85.3M), UK ($73.2M), Brazil ($36M), Korea ($33.9M) and Mexico ($28.3M).
SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE
Adding $22M on 12,200 screens in 58 markets, Sony’s third outing with the little blue guys now has an offshore cume of $42.1M. Returning to their fully-animated roots after 2011 and 2013’s live-action mash-ups, these Smurfs are facing competition from other family fare at play.
Major hubs on the earlier films included a mix of Germany, China, France, the UK and Brazil. Of those, only the UK had opened through last weekend on The Lost Village. This frame added Brazil ($2.2M), France ($1.9M with previews), Mexico ($1.6M), Germany ($1.5M with previews) and Italy ($1M).
The diminutive Peyo characters have a sizable international brand, but saw a drop-off between films one and two which legged out to $421M and $277M, respectively, at offshore turnstiles. There have of course been big currency swings between 2013 and today, and while some watchers are underwhelmed by the perf so far, Sony is where it expected to be given the strong competition.
With Easter and spring holidays coming up, the studio is anticipating runway on the pic which has a reported negative cost of $60M and a global P&A less than the $100M spent on the profitable Angry Birds Movie. China is due on April 21, the last film made $22M there.
KONG: SKULL ISLAND
Warner Bros/Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island crossed $500M worldwide on Thursday, and this weekend lifted its cume to $534.4M. Of that, $377.8M comes from international. As it continues a chest-pounding run in China, the full weekend this frame was $16M on 12,313 screens in 68 markets.
In the 3rd session, China added $11.3M for No. 2 behind newcomer Ghost In The Shell. This week, the movie from Jordan Vogt-Roberts crossed the 1B RMB mark and now has a local Middle Kingdom cume of $161M (1.11B RMB). Rounding out the Top 5 markets are the UK ($18.6M), Mexico ($13.9M), Japan ($13.8M) and Korea ($12.1M).
SABAN’S POWER RANGERS
The Lionsgate title grossed an additional $6.1M from 75 markets this frame, bringing the international cume to $42.1M. The biggest new play was France with $1.3M. The film is playing younger than expected in Europe with only the UK in the Top 5 out of the majors. Currently, the No. 1 play is Mexico with $5.3M, followed by the UK at $4.9M, Brazil ($4.8M), Malaysia ($2.7M) and Australia ($2.4M). The kids morph into their next major with Korea on April 20, followed by hopeful key markets China (May 5) and Japan (July 15).
LIFE
The sci-fi thriller from Columbia Pictures and Skydance Media stalked another $5.8M at the offshore box office this weekend. That’s down just 8% on last frame in 56 markets and on 4,800+ screens. The international cume has climbed to $36.6M. Korea got off to $2.4M (including previews) from 643 screens and at No. 3 behind Beauty And The Beast and local hit The Prison. Key upcoming releases include France, Brazil and Japan.
SING
Sing tuned up another $2.8M in 22 international box office markets this weekend bringing the offshore cume past $350M. The crooning critters found another $2.7M in Japan in the 4th frame, landing No. 2 behind the opening of Ghost In The Shell. The total is now $350.8M overseas and $620.9M worldwide.
MOANA
Coming out of its 19th weekend in offshore release, Disney’s Moana has reached $386.1M at the international box office and $634.8M worldwide. This frame was worth $2.3M overseas in Japan which has now risen to $39.4M. That makes Japan the No. 1 offshore market, overtaking France’s $35.4M.
GET OUT
Jordan Peele’s horror hit saw a slight 16% drop this weekend with the Universal/Blumhouse title earning $2M in 22 markets. The early international total is $13.7M for $176.6M worldwide. Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam opened to $317K, $157K and $130K, respectively. Norway kicked off at No. 3 behind Beauty And The Beast and The Boss Baby with $136K and on par with Don’t Breathe. The UK has crossed $10M for $10.1M to date. The next openings are Malaysia and the Netherlands on April 20.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Logan (FOX): $2.7M intl weekend (47 markets); $378.5M intl cume
The Lego Batman Movie (WB): $2.1M intl weekend (46 markets); $127.7M intl cume
Split (UNI): $1.2M intl weekend (24 markets); $135M intl cume
Hidden Figures (FOX): $1.1M intl weekend (11 markets); $57.6M intl cume
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