‘Uncharted’ Levels Up To $139M WW Cume In Expanded Global Play – International Box Office

UPDATE, writethru: After debuting early in 15 overseas markets last weekend, Sony’s Uncharted was game for another $55.4M at the international box office this session in a total 62 offshore hubs. With a projected $51M four-day domestic frame, the weekend maps out at $106.4M worldwide. This takes the running offshore cume to $88M and global to $139M.

Video game transfers can be tricky, yet a handful of factors are working in Uncharted‘s favor. Based on the PlayStation game by Naughty Dog, and directed by Ruben Fleischer, the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg adventure has been savvily targeted to a non-gaming and family audience while it’s also enjoying a Holland halo in the wake of the mega-business of Spider-Man: No Way Home. And although it’s been rare for talent to travel during the pandemic, Holland and others from the film recently did a European tour.

Uncharted added 47 overseas markets this weekend, and played on more than 20,700 screens. There were No. 1s in 42 out of the 47 new markets with the openings coming in 6% above Dune, 13% ahead of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings and 248% over Free Guy at current exchange rates. In total, the new markets this weekend repped about $40M which is on par with where we had Uncharted landing in our preview. In holdover markets, the group was down 30%.

In IMAX, Uncharted mapped out $8.5M globally this weekend, lifting the total to $11.2M through Monday. Internationally, the format cume is $6.2M.

France led all launches for Uncharted at $6.3M — Holland had surprised a preview audience at Paris’ Grand Rex last Friday — with Australia chiming in for $4M, followed by Germany at $3.4M, Italy with $3.1M and Korea at $3M. The UK in its sophomore session dipped just 20% for a $16.4M cume to date. There are still more markets ahead including China on March 14.

China got its first taste of Hollywood in a while this weekend with Disney/20th Century Studios’ Death On The Nile where the film grossed $5.9M across two days (authorities had given it a non-traditional Saturday release) and including $1M from IMAX. Although the movie came in below local holdovers in China, it was above new opener Me And My Winter Olympics. The market is now the second biggest on the Kenneth Branagh pic. Tops is the UK at $6.4M.

In total, the whodunnit ensemble grossed $19.8M from 50 offshore markets for an international cume of $50M and a global total of $75M when excluding Monday’s domestic holiday. The holdover drop was 38% and the offshore running total at today’s rates has DOTN 5% behind House Of Gucci.

Universal/Illumination’s Sing 2 is now the biggest animated title of the pandemic internationally and worldwide with an offshore cume of $184.7M and global hitting $333M. School holidays are helping propel the sequel with the UK dropping just 1% in the frame for a $31.4M cume to date, France rising 15% to $19.8M and Germany dipping 9% to gross $9.3M so far. The weekend internationally was good for $10.3M.

Norway was new this session with $900K and coming off of a best-ever preview program for Illumination. In most cases, Sing 2 is running in line with or ahead of the original film. Japan is still to come on March 18.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, meanwhile, spun a further $8.1M in 63 markets this session, bringing its international cume to $1.06B and global to $1.83B. With over $110M in global IMAX, NWH has topped The Dark Knight Rises as the format’s No. 8 film ever.

Coming next weekend, Cyrano will start offshore rollout in a handful of markets while The Batman waits in the wings for a March 2 start overseas.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Marry Me (UNI): $5.2M intl weekend (67 markets); $19.1M intl cume/$36.5M global
Jackass Forever (PAR): $2M intl weekend (11 markets); $13.3M intl cume/$61M global
Belfast (UNI): $1.7M intl weekend (7 markets); $21.8M intl cume/$30.2M global
Chickenhare And The Hamster Of Darkness (SNY): $1.3M intl weekend (France only)
Clifford The Big Red Dog (PAR): $1M intl weekend (32 markets); $53.1M intl cume/$102M global
Scream (PAR): $1M intl weekend (57 markets); $57.3M intl cume/$134.6M global
Licorice Pizza (UNI/MGM): $784K intl weekend (30 Uni markets); $11M intl cume/$26.4M global