Refresh for latest...: After two major studio movies bowed last weekend, this session was one of holdovers for Hollywood with mixed results.
Last weekend’s leader, The Flash, which had initially come in lower than projections, added $26.6M in 78 offshore markets this weekend, dropping by 59%.The Warner Bros/DC deep universe title now counts an international running cume of $123.3M for $211M worldwide.
The Top 5 markets are China ($23.6M), Mexico ($14.4M), UK ($8.5M), Brazil ($5.4M) and Korea ($4.7M).
Disney/Pixar’s Elemental, meanwhile, had better holds in its second frame, sliding by just 18% (-7% when excluding China). Korea is particularly notable with strong social scores, and this frame was up 18% there, becoming the first movie to overtake local juggernaut The Roundup: No Way Out at No. 1, as well as leading over new entry Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
In Korea, Elemental had the 3rd highest sophomore weekend for Pixar titles after Inside Out and Toy Story 4 as well as 40% above Zootopia. Females are driving this movie in Korea based on word of mouth.
In regards to the full sophomore overseas session for Elemental, it was $31.3M in 40 material markets, bringing the offshore total to $55.6M and global to $121.1M.
New additions this weekend included such majors at France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Mexico where there were No. 1 starts, as well as in all the other remaining Latin American markets except Peru, where it was No. 2 (Peru is gaga for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts which shot there). No. 1 bows were also seen in Thailand and Vietnam.
China, which is just not firing for this film, nevertheless leads offshore play at $11.1M, followed closely by Korea at $9.6M, Mexico ($4.6M), Argentina ((3.1M) and France ($2.7M).
There are holidays ahead and more markets to come including the UK, Spain and Japan.
With regard to those China numbers, and as we noted last week, this session was focused on the local Dragon Boat Festival releases, let by Lost in the Stars, a mystery film written by Chen Sicheng of the Detective Chinatown franchise and which ended its opening session with RMB 697M ($97.1M) per Maoyan. Hollywood, which has increasingly seen wonky returns in the market, just didn’t stand a chance this weekend.
Meanwhile, Sony’s Jennifer Lawrence-starrer, No Hard Feelings, turned on in 48 offshore markets with $9.5M to track 33% ahead of Good Boys and 17%higher than Cocaine Bear for the same suite at current exchange rates. Results were highest in the UK ($1.5M), Australia ($1.3M) and Germany ($1.1M) as is typically the case with U.S. comedies.
Turning back to holdovers, Paramount/Skydance’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in its third weekend optimized another $25.6M from 69 overseas markets. That puts the total offshore at $218.3M and global at $341.3M. Australia had a powerful $2.9M start at No. 1 with $2.9M this session. Japan is still to come in early August. For the moment, China leads all play at $78.1M, followed by Mexico ($15.8M), Peru with $11M, Indonesia at $9.8M and the UK at $8M.
As we reported last week, Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had already topped $500M globally through Tuesday. With this weekend, the worldwide tally is now $560.3M. Of that, international reps $243.2M. The overseas take this weekend was $22M from 63 markets. The holdovers dipped by 37%.
Korea’s $3M debut was 9% ahead of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse andTaiwan opened to$1.5M, besting the opening of the prior installment by 159%.
Here’s the Top 5 markets to date: China ($46.2M), UK ($29.5M), Mexico ($25.7M), Australia ($16.5M) and Brazil ($11.2M).
Disney’s The Little Mermaid is warbling its way to $500M global, coming off a $9.4M offshore weekend in 52 markets for a $229.1M overseas running cume, and thisclose to the half century mark worldwide with $499.3M through Sunday. The offshore hold this weekend was -41%. It was also the No. 1 movie in Japan for the third consecutive weekend and is the biggest movie of 2023 in Philippines.
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