‘The Mummy’ Unearths $141M Offshore, $172.3M Global; ‘Wonder Woman’ Flies To $232M At International Box Office

MONDAY UPDATE, WRITETHRU with Mummy (and more) actuals: Universal’s The Mummy rose from Saturday’s projections to a final $140.7M weekend launch in 63 international box office markets; that’s slightly down from Sunday’s estimate of $141.8M. The worldwide total is $172.3M through Sunday. Although those figures dropped from yesterday’s estimates, they still give star Tom Cruise his biggest offshore and global openings ever. With No. 1s in 45 markets, the monster movie is also tops for Cruise in 25. China leads with a very solid $52.4M, up a touch from Sunday’s projection.
As noted over the weekend, it might seem improbable that Cruise would clear his top overseas and global bows ever given the critical bashing this Dark Universe-starter has taken domestically. But internationally, Cruise’s star power is combined with growth in key and emerging markets and the fact that the initial rollout of this pic includes China.
His previous top international and worldwide openings were with Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi thriller War Of The Worlds ($102.5M/$167.4M). That film’s first rollout suite did not include such key markets as Korea or France, but did include Germany and Japan (China was not a major factor back then). France and Japan have yet to unwrap The Mummy. More recently, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (a loaded comp given that film’s franchise history) bowed to $64.5M in just 40 markets including Korea, the UK and Mexico, but excluding China, Japan, Brazil and France.
While the domestic performance dinged the global outlook this weekend on The Mummy, even some non-Universal execs have been quick to point out that the international opening is strong. Is this significant for the Dark Universe overseas? It’s not the most auspicious launch ever. But, the pics in the monsterverse reboot are taking a varied tack at genres and are intended to work as standalones that fall under an umbrella. Next up is the Bill Condon-directed Bride Of Frankenstein, set for release on February 14, 2019.
One source says of The Mummy that it “doesn’t deserve to be crucified, but when you load up a movie like this with Tom Cruise and then tell everyone that it’s the start of a series of films, they sharpen their knives waiting to cut you down.” This person notes that international “isn’t a total miss, so maybe they can resurrect the DU with the next film.” One has to ask: Are overseas audiences so tuned in to the whole (non-comics based) DU thing in the same way they would be with the MCU or DCEU?
The quandary on The Mummy now becomes its legs, and that’s where it gets questionable in terms of how much the film can recoup. Next weekend will be telling with no major new wide releases on deck. Some see at least a 2.2 multiple offshore. But, Cruise has a notably sizeable footprint in France and Japan where The Mummy has yet to unwrap.
Getting back to this weekend, China was a big start at $52.4M and there’s no question Universal made a smart play by getting into Korea on a holiday Tuesday. This is a market that has a fondness for showing Cruise the money. The opening day Tuesday holds the record as the biggest launch day ever for any film at $6.6M. Ultimately, it has become the 2nd best Mummy opening market this frame with $17.9M at 406 dates. Russia follows for the full frame with $7.4M; Mexico is next at $4.9M; and the UK rounds out the Top 5 at $4.2M.
Other notable milestones this weekend include Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales crossing $600M at the global box office. There’s $464.6M in the international treasure chest through June 11, led by China with a strong $161.3M to make it the No. 7 grosser of the year there.
Also, from Universal and Blumhouse, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, hit $250M worldwide. In Korea, its $15.4M makes it the highest grossing foreign horror/thriller of all time.
Actuals have been updated below on Universal, Disney, Warner Bros and Fox titles with more to come as they roll in…
NEW
THE MUMMY
Along with the No. 1 start in China, The Mummy was tops in another 45 markets, and was Cruise’s best opening weekend in 25. Overall, this is the star’s all-time biggest global ($172.3M) and international launch. Contrary to the domestic bow, his global star power combines with growth in key and emerging markets and the fact that the initial rollout of this pic included China.
While the domestic performance dinged the global outlook this weekend, some non-Universal execs see this as a strong performance internationally. The question now becomes its legs and that’s where it gets dicey. Next weekend will be telling with no major new wide releases on deck. Some see at least a 2.2 multiple offshore. And, Cruise has a sizeable footprint in France and Japan where The Mummy has yet to unwrap.
Along with Asia Pacific, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East saw good openings this frame. The soft spot was Western Europe where the mercury was high and box office was low. In the UK it battled Wonder Woman to land ultimately at No 2 with $4.2M. Also, Germany opened The Mummy to just $2.3M and Italy was $1.8M — both of those slightly up from Sunday’s estimates.
But looking back to Asia, Korea is the overall No. 2 market with a big No. 1 start at $17.9M for Cruise’s biggest opening weekend ever. This is a market that has plenty of time for the star and graced The Mummy with $6.6M on its holiday Tuesday bow to score the biggest opening day ever for any movie.
Russia likewise gave Cruise his biggest opening ever with $7.4M; followed by a similar scenario in Mexico at $4.9M.
Other major cumes include Taiwan ($4.8M), India ($4.4M), Indonesia ($4.4M) and Brazil ($3.8M).
In IMAX, The Mummy launched to $12M worldwide from 1,012 screens in 64 markets. It’s the 5th best start in the format for a Universal title. Internationally, $9M came from 675 IMAX screens for the 5th best June start ever in the format and Universal’s 4th all-time best. From roughly 400 screens in China, IMAX delivered $4.6M of the total there.
There are seven more territories to release. France, French-speaking Switzerland, Greece, Israel and Trinidad open next weekend; Egypt on June 21 and Japan on July 28.
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
WONDER WOMAN
The Patty Jenkins-helmed DC title has surpassed the lifetime gross of a key comp, Captain America: The First Avenger, in 13 days internationally. Regionally, Europe/Middle East/Africa saw a 41% drop and Latin America 43%. In Asia (outside China) Gal Gadot’s sword-wielding Diana Prince has topped the full runs (in local currency) of Suicide Squad, Man Of Steel, Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2, Thor, Iron Man, Wolverine and Logan.
She also held No. 1 in Australia, Brazil and others.
France was a key opening this weekend where gorgeous weather had an impact on moviegoing. The launch was is $5.2M (4.6M euros) and 643K admissions on 656 screens for No. 1 and ahead of comps Cap 1 (+83%) and Ant-Man (+17%).
China continues to lead offshore plays for the Themyscira native. An additional $13.3M on 7,000 screens landed her No. 2 for the weekend with a cume of $69M (RMB 476M) to pass Man Of Steel, Iron Man, Thor and Cap 1.
In the UK, the cume is $16.3M, followed by Brazil at $15.7M for a 31% dip. With R$ 51.4M, Wonder Woman has exceeded Cap 1, Man Of Steel, Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor and the first Guardians. Mexico has also topped those Marvel and DC comps, as well as Doctor Strange on $15.5M (Ps 286.7M). Korea’s cume is $13.4M (won 15B), and Australia rounds out the Top 5 with $11M (A$14.7M) and a drop of just -19%.
Wonder Woman further continues to top comps in the Philippines ($8.3M/PHP 412.7M cume); Taiwan (7.4M/NT$ 222.9M); Indonesia ($7.1M/IDR 88.4B); and Russia ($6.8M/Rbl 386.5M).
On deck this week is Germany, followed by Spain on June 23 and Japan in August.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
The 5th Pirates installment added $34.8M in its 3rd frame in 54 markets. Holds were good in parts of Europe where the Johnny Depp-starrer stayed on the No. 1 course in Germany, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, (all ahead of The Mummy’s debuts); Denmark (ahead of the 2nd weekend of Wonder Woman); and also Poland.
In Asia Pacific, China added $7.6M for $161.3M to date. Russia is now at $35.7M, the 2nd biggest play on POTC5 -– as well as the No. 1 release of 2017 there, the top Disney Live Action pic ever as and the No. 4 release of all time.
Family-friendly Latin America dipped 48% across the region with particularly strong holds in Chile (-23%), Uruguay (-25%) and Argentina (-34%).
Looking at the same suite of markets at today’s rates, POTC5 is currently running 15% ahead of Pirates 4 and 31% ahead of Pirates 3.
Behind China and Russia, Germany ($21.4M), Korea ($21.1M) and the UK ($20.5M) round out the Top 5. This is all ahead of Japan’s July 1 bow — the market has typically been major for the franchise.
BAYWATCH
Germany (where the film is No. 2) and the UK (where it’s No. 5) are tied to lead overseas hubs with $9M each. Germany’s 2nd frame was $2.4M from 567 locations. In Britain, Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and the gang delivered $1.5M at 495.
Other key totals include Australia ($5.1M), Russia ($3.1M), Austria ($1.9M), Italy and Switzerland (both $1.5M), the Netherlands ($1.4M) and Malaysia ($1.2M).
Up next weekend are Brazil, Mexico and Spain; followed by France on June 21.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
A WORD ABOUT…
DANGAL
Now approaching $180M in China after being granted an extended release, Aamir Khan’s blockbuster is said to have crossed $300M worldwide. The film — a sports biopic with a female-empowerment message — has become a major phenomenon in the Middle Kingdom where it is the biggest non-Hollywood import ever. And this comes several months after it was initially released both in India and other markets. We’ll update when more concrete information becomes available.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLES
*(NEW) My Cousin Rachel (FOX): $1.25M intl weekend (3 markets)
Get Out (UNI): $1.1M intl weekend (35 markets); $74.7M intl cume ($250.1M WW)
The Fate Of The Furious (UNI): $920K intl weekend (47 markets); $1.008B intl cume ($35.1M in Japan)
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (WB): $1.5M intl weekend (62 markets), $96.5M intl cume
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (FOX): $1.8M intl weekend (11 markets); $2.8M early intl cume
Alien: Covenant (FOX): $1.47M intl weekend (59 markets); $110.3M intl cume (China on deck next weekend)
The Boss Baby (FOX): $1.60M intl weekend (52 markets); $316.2M intl cume
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (FOX): $1M intl weekend (16 markets); $8.7M intl cume (strong holds in UK and Germany)
Logan (FOX): $802K Japan 2nd frame; $389.3M intl cume