UPDATE, writethru: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is having a joyous holiday as it is now officially the first movie of the pandemic era to pass the $1B mark at the global box office. The worldwide gross through Sunday is $1.05B which makes this installment Sony’s No. 2 film of all time, behind only Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.13B). No Way Home is also the No. 1 title of the year worldwide — and one of the only movies of the modern era to ever reach $1B without China. Simply amazing.
What’s more, the Jon Watts-directed No Way Home got to the mark in just 12 days, ultimately crossing early Sunday rather than Christmas Day as had been anticipated, but at these stratospheric levels — and during a pandemic! — that’s just splitting hairs. No Way Home is the the third-fastest title ever to $1B global, just behind Avengers: Infinity War‘s 11 days. Avengers: Endgame is the record holder, having done it in five.
The Tom Holland/Zendaya/Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer added $121.4M at the international box office this weekend, including $3.5M from new opener Thailand. This lifts the offshore cume in 61 overseas markets to $587.1M for the No. 5 spot of the year. The drop over the Christmas frame was 57%, and there’s plenty of runway ahead globally, along with Japan which releases on January 7. The domestic cume is $467.3M.
No Way Home is tracking ahead of Spider-Man: Far From Home by 51% and Spider-Man: Homecoming by 99% for the same group of markets at current exchange rates.
The Top 10 markets overseas are as follows: UK ($68.9M), Mexico ($52.8M), Korea ($41.1M), France ($35.8M), Brazil ($31.7M), Australia ($31.4M), India ($29.7M), Russia ($28.5M), Italy ($21.2M) and Germany ($20M).
In IMAX, NWH‘s global total is now the format’s biggest of 2021 at $61.5M. For a look at how the weekend progressed, click here.
In other continued, and expanded, play this weekend, Warner Bros’ The Matrix Resurrections added $35.2M for an offshore cume of $47.3M. Debuting domestically this session, it had already been in a handful of offshore markets and now has a global total of $69.8M.
There’s no question that Spider-Man is sucking a lot of oxygen out of the landscape, and this was to be expected. The fan-driven Resurrections had its best weekend debut in the UK (which was closed on Christmas Day) with $3.9M. France came in on par with pandemic comp Shang-Chi at $3.1M and Mexico is tracking roughly along the lines of No Time To Die with a $2.2M start. As well as in the UK, there were several No. 2 debuts (Germany, Hong Kong, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan).
The Top 5 markets so far are Japan ($7.1M), Russia ($5.9M), UK ($3.9M), France ($3.1M) and Mexico ($2.2M). Australia begins play today.
The IMAX running total is $6.6M and Italy and China are still on deck. The latter for January 14, making Resurrections the sole Hollywood title currently dated there.
Universal/Illumination’s Sing 2 also expanded this session, with a great 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and well positioned for the family holiday period. The sequel added 22 markets this weekend and grossed an estimated $19.2M. The forecasted international cume through Sunday (including holdovers) is $24.8M to reach a global total of $65.8M.
France is expected to deliver the biggest pandemic animation opening with $6M, including $2.1M from its ambitious preview campaign. Sing 2‘s is the market’s biggest ever paid preview program for an animated title. Mexico is looking at $3.6M including $1.1M from previews, the biggest pandemic animated opening and the third biggest all-time December opening for a toon. Russia/CIS is at an estimated $2.4M across 2,030 locations through Sunday; No. 3 behind Spider-Man and the opening of local family/fantasy blockbuster Last Warrior 3.
Spain is coming in at $1.6M, ahead of new openers Resurrections and West Side Story. Australia opens today with an estimated $1.3M, including $600K from previews. Sing 2’s Italy estimate is $900K at No. 2 (box office is being affected by government decisions to mandate the FFP2 mask, a ban on consuming food and drink in cinemas, and a high of Covid cases reported on Friday).
Disney/20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man debuted in a handful of significant offshore markets this weekend with the UK opening Sunday for Boxing Day. The Ralph Fiennes-starrer launched at No. 2 in Korea ($3.5M), Japan ($2.1M) and Indonesia ($600K) for the session and grossed $6.9M from a total seven material markets. The global cume is $16.9M. Still ahead in January are several majors including Germany, Australia, Russia and Brazil.
Elsewhere Disney’s Encanto crossed $100M overseas and is nearing $200M global. As noted earlier this weekend, Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage has surpassed $500M worldwide, making it the No. 4 studio title of 2021.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Encanto (DIS): $4.6M intl weekend (45 markets); $105M intl cume/$193.3M global
Clifford The Big Red Dog (PAR): $2.3M intl weekend (44 markets); $24.5M intl cume/$73.3M global
West Side Story (DIS): $1.7M intl weekend (46 markets); $12.7M intl cume/$36.6M global
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (SNY): $1M intl weekend (39 markets); $288.5M intl cume/$501.1M global
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