
TUESDAY UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children again led the international box office as the Fox film from Tim Burton nears the century mark at overseas turnstiles with a $94.1M cume after two frames. There were no major changes in the actuals which have been updated throughout below on what was a down weekend offshore compared to last week and last year.
The Girl On The Train left the station with a solid $16.5M opening in 34 markets and the UK leading at $8.5M. That’s bigger than the three best October openings of recent years int he market: Gone Girl, The Martian and Gravity. For local distrib eOne, it’s the best non-sequel bow ever.
Overall versus the previous frame, there was a 28% drop in box office across the Top 10 titles. Versus last year, we’re seeing a 27% dip. Back then, another Fox film was leading as The Martian cumed $118.5M after two weekends. Also in the mix at the time was holdover Goodbye Mr Loser out of the Middle Kingdom. While last week’s frame was heavy on Chinese movies during the National Day Golden Week holiday — with four near the top of the chart — two are left in the Top 10 this session: Operation Mekong and I Belong To You. But those films combined equal what last Mr Loser alone made in its second outing, further demonstrating a downturn in the Chinese market.
Next week sees the debut of Ron Howard’s Inferno. The Sony threequel adapted from Dan Brown’s 2013 book again stars Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon. This time, he wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia. He then teams up with Dr Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), and together they must race across Europe to foil a deadly global plot. Key territories include the UK, Germany and Brazil along with Italy where the movie was partly shot.
Also, Steven Spielberg’s The BFG will hit China on Friday. The filmmaker’s Amblin Partners today announced a deal with Alibaba Pictures whereby the Chinese company takes a stake in Amblin and will partner on marketing and distribution of Amblin’s titles in the Middle Kingdom; and has an option to invest in upcoming movies.
Breakdowns on all films have been updated below the original post. Actuals will resume Tuesday.
PREVIOUS: Last weekend’s ruler, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, took the kids to some new key majors this weekend with a $42.5M sophomore session. This makes it two in a row No. 1s at the international box office for Fox’s Tim Burton-directed pic which notably got a big bump in Korea. As with domestic, the main new opener is The Girl On The Train which traveled to an overall 34 markets this weekend — six from Universal and another 22 handled by Mister Smith Entertainment. The full tally on the adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ runaway bestseller is $16.5M.
An otherwise notable release is J.A. Bayona’s A Monster Calls which Universal debuted in his native Spain to $3.6M — the biggest opening for a Spanish movie this year.
Elsewhere, Finding Dory crossed $1B in worldwide box office and Suicide Squad has now overtaken Deadpool at the international box office with $419.6M to date. China, meanwhile, continues to be led by local pics as Operation Mekong crosses $100M.
See below for breakdowns:
NEW
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
The book, whose rights have been sold in 34 countries, and Blunt are the draw here as the actress’ international profile has grown over the past decade since she broke out in The Devil Wears Prada. As my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro notes, TGOTT has a B- CinemaScore domestically, and while that might seem severe, it’s typical for feature adaptations of chick lit.
Comparisons to Ben Affleck-starrer Gone Girl are inevitable, even if they are different shades of thriller. The offshore market breakdown for the moment is following a similar path to GG with Blunt’s native UK leading off of an $8.5M No. 1 start via eOne. That dislodged Universal’s Bridget Jones’s Baby which had held the spot for three weeks running. The UK was tops on Gone Girl which opened to $6.7M in October 2014 and legged to $34.6M there.
Australia, where eOne is also handling, opened at a big No. 1 with $4.4M. That’s about on par with GG. Portugal (Lusomundo) gave the Girl a first-place start and the Netherlands debuted at No. 2 via eOne.
Universal opened the Tate Taylor-directed film in Malaysia ($76K/37 dates), the Philippines ($261K/145), Singapore ($169K/24), Taiwan ($365K/76), Thailand ($142K/36) and Colombia ($188K/60). In each, Girl landed in the Top 5.
Rollout continues throughout this month in some of the bigger markets including Spain, Brazil, France and Germany.
A MONSTER CALLS
Guillermo del Toro exec produced Bayona’s breakout The Orphanage in 2007 ($71.5M intl/$78.6M WW) and this film’s fantastical elements harken back to del Toro’s own masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Bayona followed with The Impossible in 2012 which grossed $54.2M in Spain alone to become the biggest local movie ever at the time. In all, it made $161.3M internationally and $180.3M worldwide.
Universal has only Spain and North America on this U.S.-Spain co-pro. It goes out limited in the U.S. on December 23. Elsewhere, the film releases throughout the rest of the year and into early 2017. Bayona’s currently helming the untitled Jurassic World sequel.
HOLDOVERS
MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
Russia was the top opener on the Eva Green-starrer with $6.3M for No. 1 and 58% market share. That’s 75% bigger than comp Maze Runner. France fell in next with a No. 1 $5.3M at 20% bigger than Maze Runner. Argentina’s $694K is Burton’s biggest bow ever in the market.
In holds, Korea jumped 21% from opening in what is a crowded field. The No. 1 frame was $5.6M for a local total of $14.6M. The film last weekend had already bested the lifetime cumes of Cinderella and Alice Through The Looking Glass there.
Overall, the drop was 32% in aggregate from last weekend with No. 1s still in Brazil, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Belgium. Italy and Japan are still to come.
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY
French-speaking Switzerland opened to $206K at 26 dates and No. 1 over Miss Peregrine and Radin!. Chile opened above expectations at No. 3 with $150K at 43 dates — the biggest opening for the Bridget franchise in the market. In holds, Bridget slid to No. 2 in the UK where the love letter to London could pass $50M this week. The current cume there is $48.M to become Working Title’s 3rd biggest movie ever in the UK. Korea’s 11-day total is $4.7M.
DEEPWATER HORIZON
STORKS
THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS
FINDING DORY
DON’T BREATHE
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
L.O.R.D: LEGEND OF RAVAGING DYNASTIES
JASON BOURNE
SAUSAGE PARTY
SULLY
M.S. DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY
BAD MOMS
MISC CUMES/NOTEWORTHY
The Duelist (SNY): $1.3M intl weekend (Russia only); $4.6M intl cume
Kubo And The Two Strings (UNI): $1.4M intl weekend (25 markets); $16.2M intl cume
War Dogs (WB): $1.5M intl weekend (34 markets); $40M intl cume
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