Aquaman Tops Dark Knight Rises As #1 DC Movie Ever At Global Box Office

UPDATE, writethru: With no big wide releases, and only some expansions, it was a fairly sleepy weekend at the international box office; down roughly 27% on the comparable frame last year across the Top 5 titles. Play was again led by last week’s champ, M Night Shyamalan’s Glass, while Deadpool made his first foray into China and Aquaman made DC history.

Taking the latter first, the Warner Bros juggernaut has now grossed $1.09B worldwide to become the biggest DC title ever, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises. The Jason Momoa-starrer’s overseas cume is $774.2M and Japan is still to release.

As Aquaman‘s extended run winds down in China, the total there is $290.6M. Muscling into that market this session, Fox’s Deadpool 2 (in the Once Upon A Deadpool PG-13 version) landed at No. 1 with $21.4M. Rolling that into the total, it pushes DP2 to $767M global, higher than X-Men: Days Of Future Past to make the Deadpool films the Nos. 1 & 2 biggest grossers in the X-Men series worldwide.

This was the Merc with a Mouth’s first release in the Middle Kingdom and the numbers there are essentially icing on the whole. DP2 started out looking more promising on Friday, but the movie then saw a slight drop on Saturday which is unusual for a superhero flick. Word of mouth is thought to have dinged it, and folks are prone to be picky now as Chinese cinemas are about to be jammed by anticipated local product for the New Year holiday beginning February 5.

Looking at weekend leader Glass, the sophomore session was worth $23.6M in 55 markets. That’s a 52% drop from the frontloaded opening last weekend. Given the level of the dip, it’s estimated that Glass (which Disney is handling overseas) is now running a bit behind Shyamalan’s previous entry in the Eastrail 177 trilogy, Split, in like-for-likes. The offshore cume is $89.1M for $162.7M global.

Glass did hold No. 1 in several markets including the UK, Australia and a handful of South East Asian hubs. It’s topped the lifetime of Split in Denmark, Poland, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and some other smaller markets.

Elsewhere, five-time Oscar nominee Bohemian Rhapsody now has $816.2M in global box office with $611.3M from abroad, passing both the $800M and $600M milestones during the week.

In other notables, WB/MGM’s Creed II has topped the previous film’s lifetime by 18% overseas and is nearing the $200M global mark; Paramount’s Bumblebee crossed $150M in China; and Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite (the co-lead at the Oscars with 10 nominations) is seeing strong openings and holds — in Spain this frame it went up 11%.

Next frame sees more holdovers and expansions while Chinese New Year will kick off the following Tuesday (February 5) as Alita: Battle Angel and The Lego Movie 2 start some international play the same week.

Breakdowns on this week’s films above and more have been updated below.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
GLASS

M Night Shyamalan’s Glass fell 52% in its sophomore session, taking $23.6M to lead all international play. The cume on the pic that Disney is handling overseas is $89.1M for $162.7M worldwide. All offshore markets are open, 55 in total, save for China. If the movie gets a China date, it will not go through Disney. Split, the previous film in Shyamalan’s Eastrail 177 trilogy, did not open in the Middle Kingdom.

Glass held No. 1s notably in the UK, the Middle East, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Venezuela. It has already surpassed the lifetime of Split in Denmark, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, the UAE, Ukraine, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

The best holds were in South Africa (-3%), Chile (-24%), Turkey (-28%), the Netherlands (-32%), Germany (-33%), Belgium (-33%), Singapore (-36%), Argentina (-37%), Switzerland (-37%), Brazil (-38%), Colombia (-38%), Austria (-40%), Poland (-40%), the UK (-41%), the Czech Rep (-41%), Spain (-42%), New Zealand (-42%), France (-43%), Peru (-43%), Israel (-43%) and Denmark (-44%).

However, given the overall drop, it’s estimated that Glass is running behind Split internationally. The top markets are the UK ($8.9M), Russia ($8.6M), Mexico ($8.1M), France ($6.1M) and Germany ($5.1M). Split’s top markets overall were the UK, France, Korea, Germany and Russia.

DEADPOOL 2 (ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL)

In a first for the Deadpool series, Fox’s Deadpool 2 (in its PG-13 version Once Upon A Deadpool) scored a China release. The film did $21.4M on 32,748 screens to land No. 1, although it saw a Friday-Saturday drop and came up shorter than initial promise suggested.

The original 2016 movie and its 2018 follow-up were too raunchy for the market and there appears to have been a disconnect on the inside-baseball humor for some audiences on this iteration. Star Ryan Reynolds was in Beijing to promote the film which still has a bit of runway before the Chinese New Year influx of local pics starts on February 5.

The Middle Kingdom release did help push Deadpool 2 (combined with the Once Upon A Deadpool figures) to $443M overseas and $767M worldwide. That places it as the No. 2 film globally in the X-Men series, behind its predecessor.

CREED II

Warner Bros/MGM’s spinoff sequel grossed $13.8M this weekend on 4,927 screens in 45 markets to lift the overseas cume to $75.6M. That punches it past the lifetime of the first Creed by 18% as the movie nears $200M worldwide. It’s at $191M through Sunday.

Italy opened this session, to No. 1 with $4.1M on 514 screens and 38% higher than Creed. Spain is tracking 27% ahead at $2.2M in its No. 1 bow on 365 screens. In Germany, the film came in behind the debut of Ralph Breaks The Internet for $2.1M on 343 and 7% better than the previous title. Brazil opened to $1.1M at No. 3 on 591 screens (+5% on Creed).

The Top 5 markets are the UK ($12.8M), France ($11.6M), Australia ($6.3M), Mexico ($6.2M) and Italy ($4.1M).

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

In its 10th weekend, Disney’s sequel finally landed in Germany with a No. 1 $4.2M opening (including previews). That’s more than double the openings of Wreck-It Ralph, Coco and Moana. The full frame offshore was $9.5M in 29 markets for an overseas cume of $277.2M and a global total of $473.1M with Scandinavia and France still ahead.

The movie has been playing to good holds, including this weekend in the Netherlands (+19%), Belgium (+7%), UK (-29%), Australia (-30%), Spain (-35%) and Brazil (-41%).

Tops overall is China at $39M, followed by Japan ($32.6M), the UK ($22.5M), Mexico ($17.4M) and Brazil ($15.3M).

BUMBLEBEE

Paramount’s Transformers origins story added $9M in 60 markets this session, lifting the international cume to $317.2M and with Japan on deck in March. The holdover drop was -57%.

In China, Bee buzzed up another $6.9M from its 4th frame (and has an extension to play through Chinese New Year). The total there is now a solid $155.1M. Other weekend highlights include the UK which has now risen to $15.4M. Likewise after five frames, France lifted to $9.3M while Australia’s cume is $8M after six sessions.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

With five Oscar nominations, and untarred at the box office by fresh claims against its original director, Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues its rapturous run. Tuning up another $8.8M in 41 markets this session, the movie has $611.3M internationally to date, and $816.2M worldwide. Holds continue to be rockin’ with Japan down just 7%. The lead market overseas, it’s got a cume of $93.3M after 12 frames. Elsewhere, Germany dipped 10% in the 13th session with a $31M cume and Holland was off by just 13% to hold the No. 1 spot for the 3rd frame in a row and bring the running cume to $20.3M.

THE MULE

From Warner Bros and Clint Eastwood, The Mule packed up $7.9M this weekend from 2,904 screens in 44 overseas markets. The offshore tally is now $14.1M for $114.2M global. France bowed to $3.8M on 533 screens, ranking No. 1 with a 35% share of the Top 5 films. The results are ahead of Sully by 18%. Australia grossed $1.3M on 311 screens, also at No. 1 and 60% ahead of Million Dollar Baby while on par with Gran Torino. The UK posted $914K on 462 screens and Mexico did $859K on 640 screens, to more than double Gran Torino.

This is a staggered rollout with the drama next traveling to Germany this week, followed by Italy and Brazil in February.

AQUAMAN

Warner Bros’ undersea adventure did the butterfly past The Dark Knight Rises this weekend to become the highest-grossing pic ever in the DC Universe worldwide. The cume globally is $1.09B with $774.2M from international. Aquaman is also WB’s 3rd biggest movie ever globally. Already, and along with Furious 7, director James Wan now has bragging rights to the top two films worldwide in two different franchises. Japan is still to dive into Atlantis on February 8.

The current weekend was worth $7.8M on roughly 5,932 screens in 79 markets. In Brazil, Aquaman became WB’s No. 1 film ever with $34.9M through Sunday.

The Top 5 offshore cumes hail from China ($290.6M), Korea ($39.1M), Brazil ($34.9M), Mexico ($30.2M) and the UK ($28.1M).

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s threequel swooped to another $7.7M in 18 markets, lifting the offshore cume to $40.1M before domestic bows. Chile, Turkey and Finland all debuted at No. 1 In the former, Hidden World’s first day was four times bigger than HTTYD2. The weekend was $951K, 35% above the previous installment.

Turkey’s $546K at 323 includes the 2nd biggest Friday opening for animation ever, and the 5th highest opening Saturday for an animation ever. The weekend tracking is ahead of all comps including Incredibles 2 (+3%) and Ice Age: Collision Course (+81%). Egypt, at $64K from 19, had the highest all-time launch weekend for animation.

Australia leads all play at $14.2M, followed by Brazil with $7.4M. There are many more markets to come including Korea, Italy, the UK and Mexico this week, followed by France, Germany, Russia and Spain in February. The Dean DeBlois-directed family adventure scored a China release of March 1 and Japan goes in August. Dragon 2 finaled at $444.5M overseas in 2014.

ESCAPE ROOM

Sony’s Adam Robitel-directed movie had another good weekend in China where it dipped by just 27% for $6.2M in this market’s rare-for-horror release. The total there is $22.3M. Overall, the film added $7.4M from 10,600+ screens in 19 markets. The offshore cume is $28.5M with the UK entering this weekend, followed by Australia, Brazil, Russia and Mexico. Further majors continue through March.

THE FAVOURITE

Ten-time Oscar nominee The Favourite courted $5.2M in 22 markets this session for a $26.6M international cume so far. The co-lead in nominations at the Academy Awards had a great start in Italy with $1.2M on 304 screens. The film began its awards ascent at the Venice Film Festival last year, priming local auds. The UK has grossed $16.5M to date. In the 4th session there, Yorgos Lanthimos’ satire fell just 31%. And in Spain, the Olivia Colman/Rachel Weisz/Emma Stone-starrer went up by 11% to total $1.8M so far. From Fox Searchlight, the movie releases in 10 markets next weekend including Mexico Russia.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Saoirse Ronan - Mary Queen Of Scots.jpeg — Liam Daniel / Focus Features

A Dog’s Way Home (SNY): $4.5M intl weekend (22 markets); $10.5M intl cume
Mary Queen Of Scots (UNI): $4.2M intl weekend (24 markets); $13.7M intl cume (including $6.6M in the UK with a 21% drop from open)
Mary Poppins Returns (DIS): $3.9M intl weekend (35 markets); $153.6M intl cume
Second Act (STX): $3.4M intl weekend (62 markets); $24.1M intl cume
Instant Family (PAR): $3M intl weekend (28 markets); $21.8M intl cume
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (SNY): $2.8M intl weekend (63 markets); $169.1M intl cume
The Kid Who Would Be King (FOX): $1.9M intl weekend (20 markets); $3.2M intl cume
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (FOX): $1.7M (19 markets); $69.8M intl cume
The Upside (STX): $1.1M intl weekend (38 markets); $6.1M intl cume
Mortal Engines (UNI): $500K intl weekend (26 markets); $65.6M intl cume

NEW LOCAL-LANGUAGE

Director Lee Byoung-heon’s Korean comedy Extreme Job did a comScore-reported $20.7M in its debut at home. The story follows a team of narcotics detectives who go undercover in a fried chicken joint to stake out an organized crime gang. But things take an unexpected turn when the detectives’ chicken recipe suddenly transforms the run-down restaurant into the hottest eatery in town.