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Though Labor Day is upon us domestically — and its somewhat equivalents in many overseas markets to mark the end of summer — the hits keep coming as holds this session were strong on the season’s leaders while a new entry surprised. To wit, and starting with the latter: Sony/Escape Artists’ The Equalizer 3 blazed to a $60.6M global start this weekend, to clock the franchise’s best opening ever. Of that, the $26.1M debut in 49 international box office markets was also a new record bow for the Denzel Washington-led series.
The offshore start is 19% ahead of the previous installment and 29% ahead of the original in like-for-like markets at current exchange rates. And, there’s plenty of releases still to come including Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Korea in October.
Through this initial suite, the Top 5 markets are the UK ($3.5M), France ($2.8M), Germany ($2.4M), Spain ($1.7M) and Saudi Arabia ($1.6M).
In holdovers, and as we reported on Saturday, Universal’s Oppenheimer has crossed $850M global, now at an estimated $851.3M through Sunday. This makes the Christopher Nolan juggernaut his 3rd biggest title ever worldwide, surpassing Inception.
The 7th overseas frame was good for $49.7M (-32%) in 83 markets to bring the offshore cume to $542.7M, which tops Interstellar to make Oppenheimer the No. 3 Nolan title of all time internationally just behind Dark Knight Rises and Inception. The Cillian Murphy-led epic is Nolan’s biggest movie overseas when restated to today’s dollars.
New this session was China where Nolan has a big fanbase — and where he was the first major Hollywood filmmaker to do a tour since the pandemic. Coming off of a terrific 9.5 Maoyan audience score, the five-day opening cume is $30.3M, ranking a strong No. 1 ahead of local competition. That gives the film the biggest Hollywood opening this year behind only Fast X and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (note that Meg 2: The Trench is excluded here as it is a China co-production). This is the 2nd biggest opening for a Nolan film in the market, trailing only Interstellar by 17.8%.
The IMAX portion of Oppenheimer’s China debut was a massive 30% at $9.3M on just 1% of the country’s screens. Noted IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond, “In its impressive debut in China, Oppenheimer showed that it’s nowhere near finished dazzling audiences worldwide with its bold and uncompromising vision.” The global IMAX total is now $170M.
Overall to date, 59 markets have made this Nolan’s biggest move ever including Germany, France, India, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil and Italy.
The Top 5 markets through Sunday are the UK ($70.7M), Germany ($45.4M), France ($39.3M), China ($30.3M) and Australia ($25.3M).
Meanwhile, Warner Bros’ Barbie, which, again as we reported yesterday, became the No.1 film of the year globally through Friday, dolled up another $13.2M from 75 markets across the 7th weekend for a running international cume of $771.5M. The overseas frame saw a slight 33% dip from the last with great holds in a number of hubs: Spain (-11%), UK (-12%), France (-22%), Italy (-29%), Germany (-31%) and Holland (-33%).
The global cume that puts Greta Gerwig’s phenom above all else in 2023 is $1.381B. To reiterate, this is WB’s biggest movie ever worldwide, its 3rd best internationally and tops for the studio in 37 markets including the UK, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Poland.
Here are Barbie’s Top 5 best overseas scores to date: UK ($119.5M), Australia ($54.7M), Germany ($54.9M), Mexico ($54.2M) and France ($46.8M).
Elsewhere, Sony’s Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story added $8.7M in 64 markets for a $50.3M offshore cume and $79M global. Holdovers on the word-of-mouth pic were down just 30%. Still to come are Japan, Italy and Korea later this month.
WB’s China co-pro Meg 2: The Trench chomped on another $8.5M in 77 markets. Offshore is now $296.6M with global at $375M. Top 5 here are China ($116.5M), Mexico ($20.7M), UK ($15.8M), France ($14M) and Spain ($12.2M).
Finally, Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened in six new markets this session as it continues staggered rollout. The full frame put $5.4M on the half-shell in 57 markets to lift the international tally to $44.9M. Holdovers were down just 28%. Globally, TMNTMM is at $152.9M. Still to release are Australia, Korea and Japan.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Blue Beetle (WB); $5M intl weekend (71 markets); $45.3M intl cume/101.9M global
Haunted Mansion (DIS): $4.9M intl weekend (46 markets); $35.6M intl cume/$99.7M global
Elemental (DIS): $4.3M intl weekend (51 markets); $325.4M intl cume/$478.3M global
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (PAR): $3M intl weekend (67 markets); $389.7M intl cume/$560.2M global