Similar to recent weeks, we’re still in a holding pattern at the international box office, awaiting major new wide studio releases. There were a few milestones this session, however, and Japan has in general been a bright spot with local pic One Piece Film: Red and the continued thrum of Top Gun: Maverick while the market does the bulk of the lifting to potentially push Jurassic World Dominion across the $1B mark worldwide.
Universal/Amblin’s six-film Jurassic franchise has crossed the $6B mark globally. The current installment, Jurassic World Dominion, is now at a worldwide tally of $990.4M through Sunday. As we noted last weekend, Japan was the last major market to release, and may be the swing on whether the JWD dino-meter clicks past $1B. The market was the top holdover with a 25% drop in its 5th frame, for a $40.9M local cume.
Offshore, JWD is at $615.7M, surpassing No Time To Die to become the 3rd highest-grossing Hollywood pic of the pandemic era overseas.
There was some new blood in overseas markets as a non-studio late summer romance angled to get turnstiles hot and bothered: Voltage Pictures’ After Ever Happy, the fourth movie in the YA franchise, rolled into more than 50 hubs, grossing $7.9M in its early bow. Those include No. 1s in Germany, Netherlands and Russia (yes, Russia — more on that to come).
Overall, Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru led offshore play with a $15M weekend in 84 markets (-45%). The gang passed $500M on Thursday overseas ($514M.1 through Sunday) and is pushing the five-film Despicable Me franchise across $3B internationally. The global total is now $868.9M.
China reached $24.5M through its sophomore session, down just 43%. Despite competition from local titles, Gru and the crew are 65% ahead of The Bad Guys at the same point in release, trailing only that title as the second-biggest imported animation of 2022. Italy’s second weekend added another $2M for a $9.5M cume, surpassing the lifetimes of Toy Story 4, Sing and Monsters University in the market.
Notable markets include the UK ($50.6M), Germany ($30.8M), Japan ($30.3M) and France ($23.5M).
Sony’s Bullet Train cranked out another $9.4M (-36%) internationally to bring the overseas cume to $95.4M and global to $173.6M. The film had a soft opening in Korea this frame, with $908K, despite a hero’s welcome for Brad Pitt who visited the market for the first time in eight years earlier this month. Korea was down overall with top title Hunt adding $2.9M in the FSS frame for a $28.6M cume to date.
Universal’s Nope trotted into 20 more markets in the session for a total 78. The weekend scared up $8.3M (-54% in the holdovers) for a $31.1M international cume. Global is now at $148.7M. Of that, IMAX reps $13.1M.
Mexico debuted to $900K this weekend at No.2, and taking 25% of the market. IMAX and 4D formats exceeded the norm. The opening was above Jordan Peele’s Us and Get Out. Japan bowed with $800K, almost three times bigger than Us and more than 3.5 times ahead of Get Out.
Brazil scored the 4th biggest horror opening since the start of the pandemic at a No. 1 $600K, above both Peele’s earlier titles. Saudi Arabia was a No. 1 launch with $500K.
Tops overseas on Nope so far are the UK ($7.26M), Korea ($3.1M), France ($3M), Australia ($2.8M) and Germany ($1.6M).
Still flying around the globe, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick is now at $1.42B worldwide. That’s after a $6.7M weekend in 64 offshore markets (-24%) and with a $731.2M international cume. The UK is set to pass $100M on the Tom Cruise-starrer any time now, currently sitting at $99.7M following a $645K 14th session — that was a 5% increase from last week which itself had been 28% ahead of the previous frame.
Elsewhere, Japan dipped just 18% weekend-on-weekend and stuck No. 2 in the frame for an $88.3M total to date. Behind Japan are Korea ($65.5M), Australia ($62.8M) and France ($55.9M).
In IMAX, TGM has grossed $104.7M globally.
As for local-language titles, Alibaba’s New Gods: Yang Jian was the top film again in China with an added RMB 88.1M ($12.84M) for a running RMB 297M ($43.3M) cume. The IMAX portion is $4M.
In Japan, Toei’s One Piece Film: Red became the 5th highest grossing local title ever for IMAX, reaching a $5.3M cume. Full box office numbers are to come, although the movie had crossed 10B yen ($72M) late last week, the second-fastest to the milestone in the market.
Coming up this week, there are a handful of new local titles in China while international rollout starts on IMAX versions of Steven Spielberg classics Jaws and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
DC League Of Super-Pets (WB): $4.4M intl weekend (71 markets); $72.4M intl cume/$146.5M global
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (SNY/CRU): $4.2M intl weekend (34 markets); $19.9M intl cume ($38.4M incl Japan via Toei)/$69.2M global
*Tad The Lost Explorer And The Emerald Tablet (PAR): $4.1M intl weekend (15 markets); $4.1M intl cume
Beast (UNI): $4M intl weekend (60 markets); $16M intl cume/$36.2M global
Where The Crawdads Sing (SNY): $2.6M intl weekend (23 markets); $24.7M intl cume/$106.6M global
Thor: Love And Thunder (DIS): $2.6M intl weekend (31 markets); $410.1M intl cume/$746.7M global
Jurassic World: Dominion (UNI): $2.1M intl weekend (86 markets); $615.7M intl cume/$990.4M global
Elvis (WB): $1.9M intl weekend (64 markets); $129.3M intl cume/$276.7M global
*The Invitation (SNY): $1.6M intl weekend (19 markets); $1.6M intl cume/$8.6M global
The Black Phone (UNI): $686K intl weekend (75 markets); $68M intl cume/$157.2M global
*Denotes new