‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Crushes $199M China Bow To Cross $1B Overseas; #5 WW Release Ever On $1.6B+ – International Box Office

MONDAY UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Avengers: Infinity War crushed it in China this weekend. With a confirmed $199.3M (RMB 1.262B) debut, the start was $700K off the Sunday estimate. Either way, the Disney/Marvel movie becomes the 2nd biggest industry three-day bow behind The Fate Of The Furious (in local currency). That helped push the Anthony and Joe Russo juggernaut across the $1B mark at the international box office with $1,059.5M to date. The global cume through Sunday is $1,607.6M.

The worldwide figure makes Infinity War the biggest MCU title ever, passing The Avengers. The superpowered threequel is now the No. 5 global release of all time.

The worldwide weekend was worth a staggering $343.6M which was mega-fueled by China where the Avengers collected enough stones to already exceed the entire runs of The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3. They also rep the No. 9 western release of all time in the Middle Kingdom after just three days.

Elsewhere, the movie was No. 1 again domestically and No. 1 in the majority of offshore markets. Cap’n’crew’s overseas total further moves them to No. 5 on the all-time international release chart. This pushes Disney across $2B in international grosses in 2018 to date.

Will the global Infinity War tally get to $2B? At roughly $400M from the benchmark, it’s a question. China will likely throw off a 1.5+ multiple, but recall that Deadpool 2 starts mouthing off this week in most international markets (not China, natch), and he’s expected to do the business. After that, there’s a host of global tentpoles to follow. We’ll see how China and other avid markets do in the midweeks and what the holds are versus DP2.

But let’s still revisit that China opening. If we were looking at dollars, Infinity War beat Fate Of The Furious as the No. 1 opening weekend ever. Both movies include the now built-in ticketing fee that we’ve talked about before, but local currency is really what counts. That’s why we call this the No. 2 bow ever as noted above.

The Marvel franchise is big in the Middle Kingdom and anticipation was clear for this one. There was some online backlash about the April presentation of the film in Shanghai where local fans felt there was too much emphasis placed on celebrities non-endemic to the movie. This clearly had no impact on the opening weekend.

IMAX also set a new launch record in the market with $20.3M (RMB 134M including booking fee) surpassing previous best Fate Of The Furious, which grossed $13.3M (RMB 95M) last year. AIW is the first Hollywood film to ever be shot entirely with IMAX cameras.

Elsewhere in the world, Paramount/Platinum Dunes’ John Krasinski-helmed A Quiet Place crossed $100M internationally and New Line/Warner Bros’ Rampage is on the cusp of $400M worldwide.

Breakdowns on the films above and more are below. Actuals have been updated for Disney, Warner Bros and Universal.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

The China opening was expected to be big, but much as the initial international bow was beyond surprising to the industry, the Middle Kingdom threw off a wild number. At $199.3M for the three-day, that puts Thanos atop any other Marvel movie in the market. International numbers and records are better based on local currency, and that’s why we are considering AIW as the No. 2 best weekend bow ever behind Furious 8 which debuted at Easter 2017 to RMB 1.352M (but $184M in dollars).

The full overseas weekend was worth $281.5M in 100% of the footprint.

Outside China overseas, Infinity War is the highest grossing release in industry history in Brazil, Central America, Bolivia, Venezuela, Latin America as a region, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India (Hollywood) and Vietnam.

In IMAX, the China opening was good for $20.3M to become the all-time biggest bow in the format. Worldwide, IMAX has blown past $100M to $118M; AIW is IMAX’s all-time biggest Marvel film and its 5th biggest release worldwide ever.

Here’s a rundown of the Top 5 markets overall: China ($200M), Korea ($84.6M), UK (82.1M), Brazil ($55.6M) and Mexico ($54.8M).

TRUTH OR DARE
International auds gave this Universal/Blumhouse title another $7.5M this weekend for a $30.8M offshore cume. Germany opened in the session with $1.44M at 387 locations to land No. 3 while Spain was good for a $927K debut at 248, also at No. 3. In Taiwan, the scarer picked up $440K at 85 in second place behind Avengers. Korea and Italy are still on deck.

RAMPAGE
Another $7.3M this session in 64 territories takes the overseas cume to $308.4M, and the global tally to $398.2M. Germany opened this weekend to an estimated $1.6M on 764 screens, including previews and ranking No. 2; roughly on par with the Pac Rim movies. France is keen with a -3% from open and a running cume of $4.9M. Japan opens this week.

A QUIET PLACE

Paramount/Platinum Dunes’ John Krasinski-helmed and starring genre-bender whooshed past the $100M mark this weekend to bring the international cume to $100.4M. China, France and Japan are still to go on this phenomenon which grossed $2.8M this weekend. The UK has now cumed $16.0M, Australia $9.1M and Germany $3.6M.

SHERLOCK GNOMES
These guys had it in certain bump markets this weekend with an overall $5.6M in 23 markets. The new plays on the animated adventure include the UK which opened at No. 2 grossing $3.5M and Spain which opened at No. 4 grossing $739K. Germany was up 61%. Brazil is still to come. The international cume is now $28.8M.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
*Life Of The Party (WB): $3.2M (8 markets)
Ready Player One (WB): $2.3M intl weekend (46 markets); $439.2M intl cume
Isle Of Dogs (FOX): $1.9M intl weekend (38 markets); $24.7M intl cume
Peter Rabbit (SNY): $1.6M intl box office (53 markets. $214.7M intl cume
Loro 2 (UNI): $1.3M intl weekend (Italy only)
I Feel Pretty (STX): $1.26M intl weekend (UK only); $4.2M UK cume
Blockers (UNI): $1.2M intl weekend (35 markets); $26.9M intl cume
Campeones (UNI): $1.1M intl weekend (Spain only); $16.4M Spain cume
*Breaking In (UNI): $1M intl weekend (5 markets)
Love, Simon (FOX): $588K intl weekend (12 markets); $16.4M inf cume
Loro 1 (UNI): $400K intl weekend (Italy only); $4.5 Italy cume
Tully (UNI): $200K intl weekend (UK only); $500K UK cume
*Denotes new entry

LOCAL-LANGUAGE
In Mexico, MGM and Lionsgate’s Pantelion Film have the No. 1 movie of the weekend where Overboard was released as Hombre Al Agua with an estimated big debut of more than $10.5M. This is the second highest opening weekend gross in Mexico after the opening of Infinity War this year and the highest grossing opening weekend ever for an Eugenio Derbez movie. The cast was in Mexico City earlier this week for the film’s premiere and this marks the biggest opening ever for a comedy in any language in Mexico.