UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Coming off of its $151M opening last weekend, Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom added a further $173.6M this session in 51 markets. Those include China where the dino-dollars are $111.9M (RMB 715M) for the 3-day, repping Universal’s 2nd biggest bow ever in the market, behind The Fate Of The Furious. The international box office total through Sunday is $370M.
These numbers are down from the Saturday studio estimates, largely owing to the difference in China which had been seen coming in with a $125M opening. Tomorrow, there’s a holiday in the mix with China celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, and that should aid JWFK‘s momentum following what looks like a $40M Sunday. The Fallen Kingdom Middle Kingdom miscalculation notwithstanding, $111.9M is a very hefty bow. The 3-day start is the 2nd best of the year for Hollywood in China; and the 4th best ever for an import (in local currency), behind Fate Of The Furious, Avengers: Infinity War and Transformers: The Last Knight.
This weekend’s Jurassic haul also takes the franchise past $4B worldwide. Fallen Kingdom still has Latin America, Australia and North America to open next week.
Elsewhere, Deadpool 2 is nearing $400M overseas while much of the action we’ll see internationally over the next two weeks will belong to Fallen Kingdom and Incredibles 2 as well as World Cup counterprogramming titles in the run-up to Ant-Man And The Wasp beginning July 4.
Breakdowns on this weekend’s films above and more have been updated below.
NEW
INCREDIBLES 2
The top play this session was Mexico with $12.3M. The country had its first World Cup match early this morning local time, so Sunday play shouldn’t be dented, unless everyone opts to just celebrate the day away. Australia (which played France in the footie on Saturday) grossed $7.7M for the weekend while WC host country Russia bagged $5.4M. Big animated/family movies are essentially soccer-proof and can act as great counterprogramming.
Russia’s opening topped Jurassic World’s sophomore session, though this is one of the very few markets where the two pictures overlap. It is the 2nd biggest Pixar opening ever in Russia where a decision to go in against the World Cup had more to do with school holidays and stemming piracy than the soccer. It came in 58% above Finding Dory.
In Australia, the cartoon superheroes scored Pixar’s biggest opening weekend ever and were on par with Dory. This is also Pixar’s best opening in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
In Latin America, which is closely following the Group Stage soccer, Incredibles 2 is the No. 1 film in all markets and tops for Pixar in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Central America, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. It opened 35% ahead of Dory in Mexico and 14% above the forgetful fish in Argentina.
Elsewhere, the film is tops in Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Slovenia, South Africa and Ukraine.
Next weekend, Incredibles 2 goes to China and will be a real test for Pixar in the Middle Kingdom. While the brand has had mixed results building in the market, last year’s Coco had a phenomenal run, striking a chord with local audiences. The thinking has been that Incredibles could benefit from a double phenomenon: a knock-on effect of Coco cred and the fact that it’s got superheroes at its core.
After next weekend, the next major opening will be Brazil on June 28.
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
The 3-day China take reps Universal’s 2nd best start ever, behind The Fate Of The Furious (RMB 1.3B); the 2nd best for Hollywood this year, behind Avengers: Infinity War (RMB 1.2B); the 8th bow of all time; and the 4th for an import, again behind FOTF, Infinity War and Transformers: The Last Knight (RMB 795M).
Fallen Kingdom also topped the opening of 2015’s Jurassic World in China which was a 3-day of $67M (RMB 417M) and two days of previews that led to a total 5-day bow of $97.5M (RMB 604M). Universal had prepped the market for all things T-Rex by re-releasing Jurassic Park in 2013 to very solid results.
In IMAX, JWFK stomped on $10M on 520 Middle Kingdom screens in a best for the franchise. The IMAX overseas total on the JA Bayona-helmed sequel is $23M.
Now, the China opening had always been pegged to $100M+, but on Saturday looked like it was coming in higher with $125M. Ultimately, Saturday was softer than estimated and that brought the number down to $112M for the weekend. Monday is a holiday with the Dragon Boat Festival afoot, meaning another roughly $30M day is not out of the question. The unofficial Sunday number out of China was indeed bigger than Saturday. The previous film finaled there at $228.7M in unadjusted figures. JW2 has Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 on its way to China next Friday, and, as noted above, that film has the recent success of Coco, plus the market’s love of superheroes in its favor. This will be a space to watch in the coming frame.
For now, throughout the 51 markets in play, Saturday saw uplift from Friday in many. The movie has opened No. 1 in all hubs, and retains the title in 48 this session. The top play this weekend was the UK with $9.39M (-34%) at 656 locations for a $33.8M cume. Korea leads all play with $39.4M after a record-breaking opening. France is the No. 3 market at $16.8M, followed by Germany with $15.77M and a 40% week-on-week drop. Spain rounds out the Top 5 with $15.5M. Fast-burn Russia is at $14.7M. The Netherlands had a very good hold at -29% and a $4.76M running total.
In Asia, outside China, Taiwan has cumed $13.67M and Indonesia has $9.58M, followed by Malaysia with $8.56M (off a terrific 19% drop). Other local performers include Thailand ($7.5M), the Philippines ($7.27M) and Hong Kong ($7.23M).
OCEAN’S 8
Korea got off to a good start with $5.3M on 837 screens and taking the No. 3 slot behind local pic The Accidental Detective 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The debut is 83% ahead of Ocean’s 13. In France, the all-femme caper scored No. 2 with $2M from 554 screens. And in Taiwan ($1.1M/No. 2) and Hong Kong ($789K/No. 2) the movie had the best launch for the franchise.
Australia, Mexico and Brazil are all No. 2 this weekend with running cumes of $8.3M, $4.8M and $3.3M to date. Rollout continues next week in Germany, Russia and the UK with Spain, Italy and Japan to follow.
DEADPOOL 2
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
Holds in Europe continue to be solid with the Netherlands down 26%, Norway down 28% and Sweden and the UK off 33%. The UK leads all markets at a cume of $23.7M, followed by China ($16.6M), Germany ($13.5M), Australia ($12.1M) and France ($10.5M).
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
China, where AIW has an extension, has predictably slowed but still widely leads all markets with $373.4M, followed by the UK ($95.7M), Korea ($92.8M), Brazil ($66.3M) and Mexico ($60M).
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLES
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (FOX): $937K intl weekend (Japan only); $229.4M intl cume
Love, Simon (FOX): $853K intl weekend (14 markets); $18.5M intl cume
Sherlock Gnomes (PAR): $849K intl weekend (14 markets); $43.3M intl cume
Truth Or Dare (UNI): $800K intl weekend (28 markets); $48.1M intl cume
Book Club (PAR): $730K intl weekend (2 markets); $4.9M intl cume
*Pope Francis: A Man Of His Word (UNI): $600K intl weekend (4 opening markets)
Adrift (STX): $453K intl weekend (22 markets); $1.2M intl cume
Blockers (UNI): $300K intl weekend (25 markets); $32.9M intl cume
A Quiet Place (PAR): $193K intl weekend (21 markets); $139.6M intl cume
LOCAL-LANGUAGE
In Korea, sequel The Accidental Detective 2: In Action grossed an estimated $6M this weekend. The 2015 original finaled with $17.65M in the market. This time around, Lee Eon-hee directs the story of a comic bookstore owner and a homicide detective who quit their jobs to open a PI agency. Despite high hopes, they soon find themselves with only trivial cases before a woman offers them a big reward to find the truth behind the death of her fiancé.
