‘Blade Runner 2049’ Arrives With $50M Overseas; ‘It’ Tops $600M WW; ‘Despicable 3’ Hops Past ‘Zootopia’ – Intl Box Office

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Blade Runner 2049, the Denis Villeneuve-helmed sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic took flight in 63 overseas markets this weekend, hunting down $50.2M at the international box office. Sony co-financed the pic with Alcon and is releasing outside North America where the weekend is coming in lower than expected, with declines across the three-day. Offshore, Saturday business saw good increases.
The numbers we’re seeing internationally are in line with where Sony had BR2049 debuting ahead of the weekend. Predictions from outside the Culver City lot’s gates were pegged closer to the mid-$50Ms. But industry sources see the $50.2M bow as pretty good internationally, particularly the UK and Australia figures which are higher than expected given the U.S. opening.
The top market was the UK with an $8M launch, on par with comp Interstellar and ahead of Mad Max: Fury Road (+15%). Prior to release in the UK last week, folks at industry gatherings were buzzing about the fantastic reviews on the Ryan Gosling/Harrison Ford-starrer, particularly The Guardian’s 5-star praise party. The film, however, did not score No. 1s in all markets this session, notably France where a local title from the Intouchables guys landed on top, and in other hubs where IT refuses to quit.
And, last week’s champ, Fox’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, has rocked up $173.6M overseas through its 3rd Sunday. That’s 45% bigger than The Secret Service in the same group of markets at current exchange rates. The worldwide tally-ho is $253M.
Despite all this activity, the No. 1 international movie this session hails from China where the National Day holiday period has wrapped. Leading proceedings is Never Say Die from the Mahua Fun Age troupe with about $66M for the FSS. The movie crossed $220M on its second Sunday in the Middle Kingdom.
Turning back to BR2049, Asian play will be key for the film. The best markets ultimately should include a mix of the UK, Korea, Japan, China and France. China is dated for November 10 while Japan, a huge market for Blade Runner 2049, is going October 27. Korea is October 12 and in Europe, it will have a chance to build if it can keep screens — the next major release on the horizon is Thor: Ragnarok starting October 24.
Next week is about expansion internationally. There are a number of film festivals running and so awards season movies are getting a push, but there is no major wide rollout. Blade Runner heads to Korea, notably, while Kingsman: The Golden Circle will bow in France and Fox’s War For The Planet Of The Apes finally hits Japan. Universal/Blumhouse’s Happy Death Day gets a head start in such markets as Brazil, Taiwan and the Netherlands and STX’s interplanetary adventure The Space Between Us lands in China just as its Foreigner bows Stateside.
Breakdowns on the films above and others have been updated below.
NEW
BLADE RUNNER 2049
In IMAX, the sequel grossed $9.1M from 669 screens in 65 markets for the 2nd biggest global October IMAX opening ever, behind Gravity. Internationally, the IMAX portion was $4.1M on 282 screens which is the 3rd best October start for the format outside North America.
The UK led all markets with $8M for the weekend. That came in on par with Interstellar’s FSS and was 15% above Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015. Australia took a great $3.6M, topping both Interstellar (+9%) and Gravity (+28%); and Russia scored $4.9M, ahead of Gravity (+16%) and Mad Max (+1%). Other top markets include: France ($3.6M), Germany ($3.3M), Spain ($2.6M), Italy ($2.5M), Brazil ($1.8M), and Mexico ($1.6M).
Pre-weekend, sources indicated the frame would come in a touch higher at about $54M-$55M. But none are slagging off the $50.2M perf. One cautions BR2049 will lose money with domestic unlikely to get to $100M.
Warner Bros is distributing for a fee in North America while Sony also gets a distribution fee, and a share in global profits. It has no equity in the reported $155M+ budgeted BR2049. Alcon took advantage of foreign credits and rebates, shooting the movie in Hungary.
Reviews have been glowing while one of the overriding concerns has been the pic’s 163-minute running time, which limits the number of screenings in a given day. It also puts more pressure on the film to perform so it can hold screens. A nice multiple is the hope here and the $50M start puts the film in the vicinity of pics like Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian which also had strong reviews, and continued to play.
Sony has used a couple of different comps including Mad Max: Fury Road, a critically acclaimed new entry in a decades-old franchise that opened to $64M in 68 markets in 2015. Translated to today and using like-for-like markets, that figure would be $52.4M (at current rates). However, Fury Road released in May with a simultaneous worldwide showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s also a shorter film. It went on to $379M global, of which $225M was from international markets, and scored multiple Oscars. Two high-concept Christopher Nolan pics also work as comps. Interstellar, had similar response to BR2049, and an even longer runtime in 2014; it finaled at $487M international/$675M global. Inception in 2010 did an amazing $533M overseas. It was led by China, the UK, France, Japan and Korea.
Asia will be the key BR2049. China opens on November 10 with a significant screen count and Korea goes this Thursday. Japan (October 27) is a big focus as the IP is popular there and inspired the film’s aesthetics. A premiere will be held in Japan in late October with Ford, Villeneuve and Cuban actress Ana de Armas strolling the red carpet.
THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US
Abu-Assad is an Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning director, and the film has an A- CinemaScore domestically, but a 51% RT note. It’s a bit of déjà-vu, but was attractive to audiences at CineEurope in June where Fox showed a behind-the-scenes look at the film. Next weekend, it opens in Belgium and Australia, notably.
MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
Holds are great, particularly in Korea where they love these spies. The film added another $8.2M, down 41% from its debut and at No. 3 behind two local pics. The cume there is $32.5M so far. In the UK, Golden Circle is No. 2 after three weekends and has tailored $25.4M to date. Germany fell just 6% this frame for an $8M cume and Australia has tallied up $12.7M. Other key plays include Russia ($11.8M) and Taiwan ($9.6M).
Next weekend, The Golden Circle opens in France and Argentina. China goes October 20, followed by Japan on January 5.
IT
A highlight of the weekend was Germany where the movie is still No. 1 in the sophomore session with a 50% share of the Top 5 films in the market. It added $6.8M on 710 screens to drop just 37% from its record breaking opening. That lands it within the Top 5 of all markets on the pic from Andy Muschietti. They are: the UK ($40.7M), Mexico ($26.5M), Germany ($24.7M), Russia ($18.3M) and Brazil ($18.2M). Italy and Japan are still to come.
THE FOREIGNER
THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE
There were no new markets on Warner Bros’ third Lego franchise installment, although it blocked out another $6.9M on 7,765 screens in 61 markets. That takes the offshore cume to $33.6M. Germany and Australia are leading play with small drops in the 3rd frame and with totals of $4.1M and $3.8M, respectively. The remainder of the key markets to release include France, Italy and the UK this week.
CARS 3
Another $3.3M across 10 markets for the Disney/Pixar entry brings it to $221.5M overseas and $374.1M worldwide. In Germany, where Lightning McQueen is in his sophomore spin, the movie dipped just 25%. In Austria, that drop was only 12% as offshore play begins to wrap up.
VICTORIA AND ABDUL
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLES
The Emoji Movie (SNY): $3.3M intl weekend (47 markets); $114.7M intl cume
Judwaa 2 (FOX): $3.2M intl weekend (2 markets); $22.3M intl cume
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (FOX): $2.2M intl weekend (7 markets — great -8% hold in Oz); $40M intl cume
Mother! (PAR): $1.6M intl weekend (37 markets); $21.8M intl cume (UK tops at $3M, followed by France with $2.8M and Germany, Mexico and Brazil each at $1.9M)
Flatliners (SNY): $1.5M intl weekend (21 markets); $6M intl cume
War For The Planet Of The Apes (FOX): $1.1M intl weekend (5 markets); $338.3M intl cume — Japan opens Friday
A Dog’s Purpose (UNI): $1M intl weekend (Japan only); $134.1M intl cume
Despicable Me 3 (UNI): $1M intl weekend (40 markets); $762.2M intl cume — $1.025B worldwide to become the No. 5 animated movie ever globally
NEW LOCAL-LANGUAGE