While domestic ticket sales were down in 2017, the gross international box office is estimated to be up 5.1% to $28.8B. This comes after 2016 saw a 1.44% dip from the 2015 boom year that had included Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Furious 7, Jurassic World and more. There are a couple of factors helping goose this…

In October, China’s state media authority predicted box office growth of as much as 20% or more across the full year, landing at an estimated RMB 55B ($8.3B) in what would be a record take for the massive market. With a month and a half to go in 2017, Middle Kingdom turnstiles clicked past RMB 50B ($7.53B) on Monday…

Chinese box office is expected to see a strong boost when 2017's final numbers are tallied: up as much as 20% or more to RMB 55B ($8.31B), according to the state media authority. The growth this year is spurred on by the massive takings of Wolf Warrior 2 and other hits like The Fate Of The Furious and the current Never…

Charged by the successes of The Fate Of The Furious and Illumination powerhouse Despicable Me 3, Universal Pictures has just crossed the $4 billion mark at the worldwide box office for the second time in the studio's 105-year history. Univeral reports that this is also “the fastest a studio has reached this milestone…

With Universal’s The Fate Of The Furious getting its digital release today, original franchise star Michelle Rodriguez took to Instagram to tout it — sorta. What it ended up being was a gentle but notable nudge seen by her 3.8 million followers to Universal and the series’ producers to “show some love to the women of…

With this weekend’s grosses factored in, Universal has crossed the $3B mark at the worldwide box office, and the $2B mark at the international box office. Both of the milestones were achieved in record time for the studio. The cumes through Sunday are $3.036B global, $2.088B overseas. Uni crossed $3B globally today…

UPDATED, Tuesday 12:19 PM: Final numbers are in for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and yesterday it took in another $55.5M to bring its global gross to $326M (that includes the $247.8M thru the U.S. Memorial Day holiday). The $326M earned by the fifth installment of the Jerry Bruckheimer…

UPDATED, Sunday, 7:55 AM: As expected, Universal Pictures’ The Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment in this franchise that has spanned 16 years, took the brass ring with $1B overseas this weekend. And it’s no wonder as the film started off with a final $443.2M debut when it dropped in mid-April taking No. 1…

China's breakneck box-office growth may have ground to a sputter in 2016, but one need only look at the recent success of The Fate Of The Furious for proof there is still gas in the market. Last month, F8 crossed 2.43 billion RMB to become the No. 1 import ever in the market. As of Sunday, it has climbed to 2.662…

TUESDAY UPDATE, WRITETHRU with actuals: Disney/Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 took root in three more key offshore markets for the sophomore session, rocking out with a bigger-than-projected $126.1M in 55 total (vs $123.8M in the Sunday estimates). This lifts the intergalactic pack to $285M at the internationa…

TUESDAY UPDATE, WRITETHRU with actuals: Rocketing off in 37 markets this weekend, Disney/Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 came in nearly $5M higher than projected on Sunday. With a $106M opening at the international box office, the launch was notably stronger than forecast in both Europe (+$3.1M) and Latin…

Writethru, 4th update: Sunday final: While it's normal for moviegoers to ease their spending the weekend before a huge tentpole opens, in this case Disney/Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which is projected to make $150M, this weekend's problem at the box office isn't the late April date, but the sheer lack of…