Yahoo Finance ‘Tenet’ Tops $250M WW, Takes Japan By Storm; ‘Mulan’s Uphill Battle Continues In China; ‘After We Collided’ Sexy At $30M Overseas – International Box Office
TUESDAY UPDATE, with actuals & more market detail: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet came in just a touch higher in the weekend actuals versus Sunday’s estimates, lifting to $25.3M from 54 overseas markets, per Warner Bros. That was good for a 35% drop in the holdovers (-29% if excluding China). The international box office cume through Sunday stood at $215M and worldwide at $251M, clearly powered by overseas where the pandemic has been better managed, despite some pockets of flare-ups.
The Top 10 markets through Sunday are led by China ($60.5M), where cinema capacity will be increased to 75% this coming weekend ahead of what is poised to be a lucrative National Day holiday for local titles. Behind China on Tenet are: UK ($18.3M), France ($16.3M), Germany ($12.9M), Korea ($11.9M), Taiwan ($9.8M), Russia ($8.2M), Spain ($7.3M), Italy ($6.6M) and Australia ($6.5M).
Mulan actuals were in line with Sunday’s estimates. See below for the offshore weekend breakdown.
PREVIOUS, SUNDAY UPDATE,Writethru: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet handily passed $200M overseas this weekend with a $25M estimated offshore frame to bring the international box office cume to $214M. Including domestic, the global to-date total is now $250.1M. Boosting play overseas, as we noted yesterday, was the Japan bow which came in at a strong $4.3M in the No. 1 position and ahead of both Dunkirk and Interstellar (the latter recently playing strongly in local re-release) across a three-day debut. This comes as Japan’s Silver Week holiday begins.
During a three-day Japan launch (rather than the typical Saturday/Sunday), IMAX Tenet screens accounted for a 27% market share. The $1.15M generated from only 38 IMAX screens is the biggest ever bow for Warner Bros and Christopher Nolan in the format in the market. Overall overseas, Tenet grossed $3.5M from 782 IMAX screens for an international cume of $23.4M, 11% of the international total.
Mexico, with 88% of cinemas now re-opened, was a clear number one for Tenet with $827K. This is the first Latin American market to debut the film.
Holds were good in ongoing markets including France (-17%), Germany (-30%), Italy (-30%), Russia (-25%), Spain (-21%), UK (-35%) and Korea (-26%) and Australia (-21%). There are still 25 offshore markets to release Tenet which will go once cinemas are back up and running.
Meanwhile, Disney’s Mulan saw a 72% drop in its sophomore China frame, adding $6.5M to bring the local cume to $36.2M. The live-action update on the 1998 animated classic was No. 2 for the weekend there, where it has been battling piracy, a low reviews score and poor word of mouth. It came in behind local juggernaut The Eight Hundred which is now at about $424M, soon to overtake Sony’s Bad Boys For Life ($430.3M) as the No. 1 movie worldwide of this unprecedented year.
China will up its cinema capacity level to 75% next weekend as Leap (Duo Guan), about the Chinese women’s volleyball team, will start previews ahead of National Day celebrations which will see a host of local titles enter the mix. We are likely to be looking at more and more success stories out of the Middle Kingdom in the coming weeks.
Turning back to Mulan, which debuted on Disney+ September 4th in markets where the streaming service is available, it has grossed an estimated $57M through Sunday in its international box office theatrical plays.
The full weekend from 20 markets added $10.9M. New hubs included Korea where Mulan did $1.2M from Thursday through Sunday. It is in a neck-and-neck race with Warner Bros’ Tenet for No. 1 across the weekend. The Chuseok holiday is coming up in Korea on September 30, which could give Mulan a boost, though the market has been hobbled. Hong Kong also opened, but given the backlash against the film last year when star Liu Yifei prompted the #BoycottMulan furor over controversial statements she made on social media, we hear the bow was slight.
Elsewhere, the Niki Caro-directed pic retained No. 1s in the Middle East, Malaysia and Singapore. There were good holds in Poland (-21%), Middle East (-39%) and Russia (-42%). Despite the difficulties in China, it remains the top market on the film, followed by the collective Middle East ($5.1M), Russia ($3.5M), Thailand ($2.7M) and Taiwan ($2.2M). Israel, where a new lockdown has been implemented, is due to open next weekend, though that may change.
20th/Disney’s The New Mutants added $2.1M for the weekend in 38 markets, taking the overseas cume to $17.4M. That mirrors domestic for a $35M global total to date. There were some good holds in Spain (-19%), France (-23%), Germany (-26%), Mexico (-36%), Australia (-42%) and the UK (-48%). France leads overall play with $2.6M, followed by the UK ($1.7M), Mexico ($1.6M), Spain ($1.3M) and Russia ($1M).
Outside the studios, Voltage Pictures’ After We Collided continued its sexy run offshore — well ahead of the October 23 domestic bow — with an added $4.1M from 31 markets. This brings the overseas cume to $30M. Russia was a highlight on the sequel with a No. 1 start, above several comps. Also notable, the UK, where the first movie in the Anna Todd series was not released theatrically, did an estimated $827K this session. The film had begun two weeks ago on a very limited number of screens there, then expanded to over 300 this frame and is now headed to open even wider next weekend to 500+.
Gerard Butler-starrer Greenland added three markets this weekend: Ukraine, Greece and Iceland. The full session was worth $771K from 1,301 locations for an international cume of $13.6M. Notably, STX’s hit scored a No. 1 bow in Ukraine with $237K and coming in 136% ahead of the opening weekend of Angel Has Fallen. In holdovers, Russia dropped 41% during the fifth frame, with a cume of $1.88M. It is running 141% above Angel. Vietnam saw a sophomore dip of 46%. Its $565K to date is 41% over Angel. In France, Greenland jumped up 3% and has now grossed $4.4M after seven sessions. The cume is 38% above Angel and 65% over London Has Fallen. Coming up, Greenland bows in the Middle East, Thailand, Hong Kong, Poland and Spain, among others.
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