The Mummy Cruising To $139M Overseas, $169.3M Global Box Office Debut

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Now unwrapped in 63 offshore markets, Universal’s The Mummy has grossed $56.8M at the international box office through Friday. That puts the Tom Cruise monster movie on track for an estimated $139M overseas this weekend, and $169.3M worldwide. Both of those would be Cruise’s biggest openings ever.

Clearing his best international and global bows with The Mummy may seem improbable given the critical bashing the film has taken domestically. But here, Cruise’s global star power is combined with growth in key and emerging markets and the fact that the initial rollout of this pic includes China. His previous top international and global openings were with Steven Spielberg’s 2005 thriller War Of The Worlds ($102.5M/$167.4M).

Breaking down the numbers so far for this Dark Universe starter, it has opened at No. 1 in 52 markets. China is in the lead with a $19M start on Friday, also setting an opening day record for a Cruise vehicle. Unofficial numbers out of the Middle Kingdom have it at about $37M with today included, setting it up for a $51.5M bow there. If that holds, it puts the opening in the company of titles like Kung Fu Panda 3, San Andreas and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Korea is expected to follow at $17M after setting a Cruise record earlier this week. Russia will land as the 3rd offshore market for The Mummy with a projected $7.2M through Sunday. Mexico will come in next at $5.4M and India and Taiwan will round out the Top 5 at $4.6M, per studio estimates. Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Malaysia, Indonesia, Poland and Turkey are among the markets where Cruise had his best opening day ever.

As is typical of action pics, The Mummy is over-indexing in some of the smaller Asian markets — and is off to a very good start in China. Cruise did not visit the Middle Kingdom in advance of The Mummy, but did travel to Australia, Taiwan, Spain, France and Mexico City in support. He also did a London-set appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden last week. The film is currently running at No. 1 in the UK where it’s on track for about $4.4M, while Germany is softer at No. 2. France and Japan are notably still on deck.

We’ll have a full update tomorrow.

PREVIOUS, FRIDAY 11:08 AM PT: International box office numbers are beginning to roll in on Universal’s The Mummy with the Tom Cruise-starring pic at $20.5M through Thursday in 37 markets. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, the monster movie — which is facing an uphill battle with critics — has also opened in China today. The bow there is estimated at $18.7M (RMB 127.4M) which is not included in the number above. In the Middle Kingdom, this is the the biggest opening day for a Cruise vehicle.

The launch in China sets the movie up for a roughly $50M weekend there, despite the fact that local reviews site Douban has it at a 4.8 out of 10. Still, international will be where this Dark Universe starter does its best business. Domestically, it’s suffering from poor critical reaction — although its Thursday previews bested recent Cruise comps outside the Mission: Impossible series.

The Mummy, which launches Uni’s new monster franchise, unwrapped with a fantastic start in Korea this past Tuesday (a holiday) and is now at about $11M there.

Other notable bows include Russia on Thursday with $1.6M and 62% market share for the biggest Cruise opening day ever. Brazil yesterday was also Cruise’s best bow with $526K.

Projections ahead of offshore openings this weekend had the (reported net production cost) $125M-$130M, film at a range of $125M-$135M. It will ultimately likely fall within the $130-$140M range, but is not expected to have great legs. Whether that has an impact on Uni’s monsterverse reboot remains to be seen. Contrary to other franchises, the UDU pics are taking a varied tack at genres. The next pic up is the Bill Condon-directed Bride Of Frankenstein, set for release on February 14, 2019.