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UPDATED: Storming 63 international box office markets in its opening frame, and before domestic enters the arena this coming week, Paramount and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II has debuted to an estimated $87M. This is within our pre-release projection, and also marks the biggest overseas start for a Ridley Scott-directed film, as well as Paramount’s best offshore bow for a U.S. R-rated movie.
Heading back to the Colosseum 24 years after Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator reinvented the swords and sandals genre, this sequel was No. 1 in major markets. It performed best in the UK with a No. 1 launch of $11.4M at 722 locations.
Next up was France at $10.3M from 729 sites. Spain grossed $5.6M from 411, Australia delivered $4.9M at 353, and Mexico chimed in with $4.7M from 922.
Elsewhere among No. 1s, Germany’s start was $4.3M from 650 locations, Italy grossed $3.8M at 530, Korea did $3.2M from 545 and Brazil was good for $3M from 759 sites.
All of this is ahead of the domestic (and China) release on November 22.
We’ll get into more detail on the Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen-starrer in just a bit (see below for how marketing and partnerships helped amp the film).
In the meantime, Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, after topping $400M global earlier this week, has now surpassed the international lifetime of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The offshore cume is $308.5M coming off of a $17.3M weekend in 66 overseas markets (-49% from last session). Worldwide, the cume is now $436.1M.
Here are the Top 5 international markets to date: China ($90.3M), Mexico ($18.8M), UK ($15.3M), Germany ($13.1M) and Korea ($12.1M).
Last weekend’s new entry, Red One, added an estimated $14.7M from the sophomore overseas session. Recall this is a Warner Bros release overseas whereas Amazon MGM just put it out domestically this frame. The drop internationally was 43% and the running offshore cume is $50M, for $84M global.
Internationally, there were some really strong holds on this Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans-starrer, including Brazil (-8%), Germany (-9%), New Zealand (-14%), Switzerland (-18%), Austria (-22%), Peru (-23%), Holland (-26%), UK (-28%), Spain (-31%), Singapore (-31%), Italy (-32%), Australia (-35%), Colombia (-38%) and Malaysia (-39%).
Studiocanal’s Paddington in Peru, which last weekend scored the biggest opening of the year for a British-produced movie in the UK & Ireland, continued to charm audiences there with another $8.7M (-29%). That takes its local cume to $23.7M, and puts it at No. 9 of all films in the market to date this year.
Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s charmer The Wild Robot, which, as we reported on Saturday, has passed $300M worldwide, added $6M this frame (-35% versus last weekend). The international cume through Sunday is $170.7M for $308.5M global.
Uplift and strong holds were seen in several markets. Spain had the best performance in Week 6, now tallying $10M as The Wild Robot passed the lifetimes of How To Train Your Dragon 2 and HTTYD3. There was another red alert for weather in the Valencia region during the week, but the strong play-out is aided by an excellent FilmAffinity score (7.9), the highest ever for a DWA film.
Tops is still Mexico, now with $20M, followed by the UK at $17M and France at $12.4M.
Digging back into G2, prior to the international release, the cast and filmmakers embarked on a global tour that spanned seven countries across four continents, including events in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Dublin, Copenhagen and Paris.
There were also a number of key partnerships. Highlights from the marketing campaign and partnerships include PepsiCo’s cookie brand Emperador, which launched a multi-million-dollar bespoke TV campaign in Mexico and featured a Colosseum-inspired takeover of the Oxxo flagship store in Mexico City.
In Australia, high-end dessert shops Oliver Brown crafted a limited-edition ‘Emperor’s Collection’ range in stores around the country, with customers having the chance to “Enter the Dessert Arena” in a Colosseum-inspired store takeover in Sydney.
In Italy, ATAC, Rome’s largest transportation system, branded its A-line train and Circo Massimo station with movie art and surprised one million commuters with branded tickets.
In Brazil, leading sports supplement brand, Max Titanium, kicked off a never-been-done campaign tied to well-known hometown hero athletes (Rafael Brandao, Jorlan Allday, Ramon Dino) showcasing what it takes to become a modern gladiator in a series of workout challenges.
In Germany, VR Banks invited 25M+ clients to “Join the Financial Arena” with standees in over 12K locations, ATM screen takeover and paid digital ads.
And in France, popular cafés called French coffee shops created a limited-edition handcrafted coffee flavor inspired by the Roman Empire available in over 51 locations.
Gladiator II also teamed up with Ferrari for a first-of-its-kind collaboration, which includes special social content, along with an exclusive actor-on-driver interview between Paul Mescal, Charles Le Clerc and Carlos Sainz; Ferrari driver attendance at the global premiere in London and culminating at the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend with Gladiator branding on the car livery and drivers’ racer suits, with stars Mescal, Nielsen and Fred Hechinger attending.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
I’m Still Here (SNY): $2M intl weekend (Brazil); $4.1M Brazil cume
Smile 2 (PAR): $1.7M intl weekend (51 markets); $66.2M intl cume/$131.9M global
Anora (UNI): $851K (27 UNI markets) + $548K (1 FilmNation market); $9.9M combined intl cume/$20.3M global