Yahoo News ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Thunders To $109M In Overseas Debut – International Box Office
TUESDAY AM UPDATE, WRITETHRU with actuals: Launching in about 52% of the world a week before entering the domestic arena, Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok hammered out a $109.1M international box office start this session. The strong debut on the Taika Waititi-helmed threequel was more muscular than the Sunday estimate of $107.6M. Through Sunday, it’s running 6% ahead of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 and 24% above Doctor Strange when looking at the same suite of 36 material markets this frame, and using today’s exchange rates.
As we saw in early mid-week bows, the Chris Hemsworth-starrer posted the biggest October opening weekend in many markets and continued to do so as more were added through the frame. The film can boast No. 1s everywhere.
The top plays thus far are the UK ($16.2M), Korea ($15.7M), Australia ($8.4M), Brazil ($8.1M) and France ($7.7M). Europe made up the bulk of the increases between Sunday’s estimates and today’s full figures.
The overseas opening on the third pic in the god of thunder’s franchise was eyed at a range of $85M-$100M by industry sources ahead of the early non-traditional Tuesday UK opening. Most topped it out at $100M with one seeing anticipation high enough to push it past the century mark.
The comps also include Thor: The Dark World, and Thor 3 is 34% above that which is little surprise given the lighter tone of this refresh on the series. At current exchange rates Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, which bowed in April this year, finaled at $481M internationally while Doctor Strange earned $456M overseas after opening at this same time in 2016. Thor‘s got critical good will behind him as well as some runway ahead — there are school holidays in several plays and big markets still to come including China and the U.S. But, he’s also got Justice League beginning day-and-date on November 17.
In IMAX, Thor: Ragnarok delivered $6M on just 189 screens, a $31,500 per-screen average. That’s on par with IMAX opening results of GOTG2 in like-for-like markets.
Significant markets where the Crown Prince of Asgard and his friend from work, the Incredible Hulk, did not face-off this weekend include Germany, Russia, China, Japan and Mexico. They head to those hubs as well as North America and virtually all other territories this coming week.
Also from Disney, and Pixar, Coco started off its overseas career in Mexico, and it too flew past Sunday estimates with $9.3M vs a projected $8.4M. The release fell just ahead of the Día de Muertos holiday (that’s why Thor‘s not there yet). The film opened at No. 1 and scored the biggest opening weekend for an original IP animated pic, and the top debut for an animated movie outside summer vacations in the market.
Thor and Coco helped push The Walt Disney Studios across the $4B global box office mark this session ($4.103B to date), making it the only studio to have achieved the milestone for the last five consecutive years. Domestic box office for the Mouse in 2017 stands at $1.402B with $2.701B overseas thus far.
The weekend’s other new Hollywood opener, Lionsgate’s Jigsaw, carved out a much higher than estimated take of $11.1M from 46 markets in its debut. Combined with domestic, that lifts the franchise over $900M worldwide. Local German comedy threequel Fack Ju Gohte 3 made its international bow with $19M in just two markets.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros’ Geostorm crossed the $100M mark internationally, whipping up a $48.9M weekend that was led by a $33.8M China debut. That was dour news for Sony/Alcon’s Blade Runner 2049 which took flight in the Middle Kingdom on just $7.6M for the weekend, coming in 3rd behind the disaster pic and last week’s champ, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The well-reviewed BR2049 was No. 1 in Japan.
In another milestone, Universal/Focus’ Judi Dench-starrer Victoria And Abdul crossed $50M worldwide and sits at $51.2M through Sunday.
Along with Thor expanding to dominate again next session, A Bad Mom’s Christmas dons its holiday apparel in the UK and Australia among a handful of others as the STX comedy sequel begins rollout. Fox’s all-star Murder On The Orient Express from director Kenneth Branagh too pulls out of the station in the UK on Friday.
Breakdowns and actuals on the films above and others reporting have been updated below.
NEW
THOR: RAGNAROK
Outperforming pre-weekend industry projections, Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok smashed onto the international scene with $109.1M in 36 material markets. In several of those, this was the biggest October opening ever (see below), and overall Thor 3 is running 6% higher than Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, and 24% ahead of comp Doctor Strange which bowed in this corridor last year. It’s 36.5% bigger than Thor: The Dark World whose title is indicative of one of the big differences from sequel to threequel given the lighter tone of Ragnarok.
On 189 IMAX screens in 39 markets Thor 3 nailed down a $31,500 per-screen average, on par with IMAX opening results of GOTG2.
GOTG2 finaled at $481M internationally while Doctor Strange earned $456M offshore. All comp numbers are at current exchange rates and across like-for-like markets.
Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi, is off to a strong start. Key will be how it holds in the mid-weeks (there are a lot of overseas school vacations right now) as well as how it fares in the China debut next Friday. Looming is Warner Bros/DC’s Justice League which begins assembling from November 15 offshore, and opens domestically and in China on November 17.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at Thor’s first weekend. Anticipation was high for the god of thunder’s return with Chris Hemsworth’s titular hammer-wielder imprisoned on the other side of the universe (and sans said hammer) as Asgard comes under threat. The only way to escape and save his home world is to fight former ally and fellow Avenger — the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
The rest of the cast features the returning Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba and Anthony Hopkins, as well as newcomers Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum and Tessa Thompson.
The playful trailers and clips landed. The first teaser drew 136M views worldwide in its first 24 hours last April. Rotten Tomatoes has the movie at a marvelous 98% fresh. The UK’s Radio Times calls it “a fabulous fantasy and the funniest Marvel movie yet.” Audiences have been looking for some salve after a limp August and a disappointing run for would-be blockbuster Blade Runner 2049, also a darker, if well-reviewed, film.
Thor: Ragnarok was No. 1 in all markets this session.
Tops was the UK at $16.2M, over 28% bigger than Doctor Strange and the best non-Bond October opening ever. Disney now has three of the top four bows of 2017 in the market. Next up, Korea, where action tends to rate over humor, had a great start of $15.7M. Disney played up the action aspects here and saw a result that is more than 68% above GOTG2 with 64% of the market share.
Australia opened 57% ahead of Doctor Strange and 17% ahead of GOTG2, and saw the biggest industry opening weekend ever for an October release at $8.4M. Likewise, Brazil scored the top October bow ever, the 3rd best all-time debut for the MCU, well outperformed comps and came in with 81% of the market share.
Rounding out the Top 5, France debuted over 13% ahead of Doctor Strange and nabbed the 2nd biggest October opening ever. There is strong competition in that market from local period comedy/drama Au Revoir Là-Haut, and contemporary comedy Marry Me, Dude.
The Top 5 overall markets on the last Thor were ultimately China, Russia, the UK, Brazil and Mexico (its offshore results improved 63% on the 2011 original). Doctor Strange was tops in China, Korea, the UK, Brazil and Russia — notable that on Thor 3 Korea did such big business at open whereas the market did not figure in the Top 5 GOTG2 ultimate plays which were China, the UK, Germany, Russia and France.
Asia was stronger than expected overall with the Top 10 rounded out by Indonesia ($5.5M), Taiwan ($5.4M), Italy ($4.2M), the Philippines ($3.8M) and Malaysia ($3.5M).
Along with those indicated above, Indonesia, Taiwan (already beating GOTG2’s lifetime), the Philippines and Malaysia also set October opening records. So did New Zealand (Waititi’s from here and this is the biggest opening of the year overall), Vietnam, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia and South Africa.
Significant markets not opening this weekend included Germany, Russia, China, Japan and Mexico. By next Friday, along with North America, those will be online.
JIGSAW
Lionsgate’s 8th pic in the Saw franchise trapped $11.1M in 46 markets this debut session for a score that’s 24% higher than Saw 5 and 44% bigger than Saw 6. It’s been a long time since seeing a Saw movie at the box office — the last one was Saw 3D seven years ago. With this weekend’s domestic and offshore openings, the series has risen just over $900M worldwide.
Lionsgate revealed the title of the 8th installment at the CineEurope exhibitors conference in Barcelona this past June and this weekend opened it in just three major markets. Tops was the UK with $2.5M on 462 screens for a No. 2 start. The market has consistently led on the franchise since the beginning. Russia opened at No. 3 with $2.2M on 1,018 screens. Lionsgate notes that’s significantly higher than both Saw 5 (+500%) and Saw 6 (+200%) in local currency terms. Germany debuted at No. 2 with $1.5M on 333 screens.
Directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, Jigsaw was made for a responsible $10M production cost. The next major markets set to release this week are Italy, France, Australia and Korea.
COCO
Disney/Pixar’s latest outing took an early bow in Mexico this session, following its premiere at the Morelia International Film Festival and timed to the Dia de Muertos holiday. The $9.3M opening is the best launch weekend for an animation original IP and the top debut weekend for an animated film released outside summer vacations (June-July) in the market. It topped the start of Inside Out by over 20%.
Co-directed by Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and Adrian Molina, the story follows Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), who has musical dreams inspired by his idol, the late great Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). Following a mysterious and otherworldly chain of events, Miguel meets charming trickster Héctor (Gael García Bernal), and, together, they set off on an adventure of music and mystery, resulting in the most unusual family reunion.
There are only a handful of reviews in, but the film is currently 89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Richly-colored footage played to praise at CineEurope this summer and then at the D23 event in July. The themes should resonate with families once rollout gets going wider. Short Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is also tuned up to play alongside the movie.
Coco opens in the U.S. and additional international territories beginning November 22 and including China on November 24.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Luca Guadagnino’s Sundance and fall fest hit Call Me By Your Name opened in the UK only this weekend where it earned $300K from 112 locations. Sony Pictures Classics has the movie domestically and Sony Pictures Releasing International is handling offshore where the UK opening is the first worldwide, more than a month before the U.S.
The lauded film is based on André Aciman’s novel and set in the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy. There, Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Enter Armie Hammer as Oliver, a charming American scholar working on his doctorate who arrives as the annual summer intern helping Elio’s father — and with whom Elio discovers an awakening desire that will change their lives.
The film has awards buzz aplenty and SPRI brought Guadagnino, Hammer, Chalamet and Garrel over to the UK premiere at the London Film Festival earlier this month.
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
GEOSTORM
After seeing its China release date dance back-and-forth, Warner Bros’ Geostorm finally landed on October 27, and dominated play in the face of Blade Runner 2049 and holdover Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The full weekend on the disaster pic overseas was $48.9M from 27,752 screens in 61 markets. That lifts the international box office to $113.7M.
The China estimate is $33.8M including Thursday sneaks and taking 50% of the Top 5 movies on 17K screens. Results outperformed Into The Storm and Gerard Butler-starrers Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen. They’re on par with Independence Day: Resurgence which was produced by Geostorm helmer Dean Devlin. Geostorm will have to make a fast break in the midweeks with Thor: Ragnarok arriving in town on Friday.
Elsewhere, Peru opened to No. 1 with $745K and topping nearly all comps, per the studio, including Pacific Rim. India, which has some local films dominating, bowed to $671K on 342 screens as the top MPAA title. It’s 90% ahead of Into The Storm and 55% over White House Down. The top holdover market was Mexico at $1.8M in the 2nd frame for No. 2.
The Top 5 markets are China ($34.1M), Russia ($8.2M), Korea ($7.2M), Mexico ($7.1M) and Taiwan ($6.3M).
France and Italy open this week.
BLADE RUNNER 2049
Moving into China, Sony/Alcon’s Blade Runner 2049 did not find salvation. The film played at No. 2 behind disaster pic Geostorm on Friday then was overtaken by holdover Kingsman: The Golden Circle on Saturday. Its local estimate at No. 3 is $7.6M. There was some local chatter on social media about the availability of 2D and 3D screenings as well as certain scenes that looked different in their mainland versions versus other markets. As with elsewhere, reviews were positive with an 8.5 out of 10 on Douban.
The news was somewhat better in Japan where the No. 1 start was worth $2.7M, topping the opening of Interstellar by 18%. The film could find some extended play in the slow-burn market.
In total this weekend, BR2049 added $16.6M in 63 offshore hubs. The international cume is $142M.
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
Last week’s international box office champ spied $13.25M this weekend in 62 markets. The Fox film’s overseas cume is now $280.5M. The Matthew Vaughn-directed sequel continued its run in China with another $9.24M, landing in the No. 2 spot on Saturday and Sunday after overtaking newcomer Blade Runner 2049. The total there through Sunday is $63.3M. It’s also continuing a strong run in France where it was down 33% this session for an $11.1M cume. The UK after six frames is at $31.8M. Japan will be the final market to bow, on January 5.
IT
New Line/Warner Bros horror juggernaut picked up another $6.1M in 54 markets this session to take the overseas cume to $342.7M and the worldwide tally to $666.6M — and that’s all with no China. After a record-breaking frame for Pennywise last weekend, Italy added a further $3.5M on 661 screens to come in a close second behind Thor: Ragnarok. The cume there is $13.6M. The Top 5 markets are the UK ($42.4M), Germany ($33.4M), Mexico ($27.6M), Brazil ($19.8M) and Australia ($18.8M). The last key market to open is Japan on November 3.
HAPPY DEATH DAY
Celebrating releases in 13 new markets this frame, Universal/Blumhouse’s horror pic blew out the candles on another $4.7M in 40 total hubs. The international cume is a running $20.18M. Mexico was the top opener in a field that included Disney/Pixar’s Coco taking a big piece of the action. HDD came in at No. 3 with $807K. With the Dia de Muertos and Halloween holidays this week, Uni is anticipating strong daily action. The UAE bowed to $200K followed by Vietnam at $219K in 2nd place behind Thor. Belgium placed 3rd with $162K. The top holdover is the UK at $553K for a total $2.8M to date. Brazil has grossed $3.8M and Chile held for a three-frame total of $726K. There are 23 markets to go.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLES
The Snowman (UNI): $3 intl weekend (40 markets); $24.6M intl cume
The Lego Ninjago Movie (WB): $3.1M intl weekend (58 markets); $58.2M intl cume
My Little Pony: The Movie (LG): $2.8M intl weekend (72 markets); $23.3M intl cume
The Emoji Movie (SNY): $2.2M intl weekend (41 markets/+32% in France); $125.8M intl cume
Victoria And Abdul (UNI): $1.9M intl weekend (33 markets); $34.2M intl cume
The Mountain Between Us (FOX): $1.8M intl weekend (25 markets); $16.9M intl cume
American Made (UNI): $1.3M intl weekend (38 markets); $80M intl cume
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (FOX): $996K intl weekend (9 markets); $47.2M intl cume
Get Out (UNI): $248K intl weekend (Japan only, final market); $78M intl cume
Fox International Productions’ Condorito is playing in 11 markets and added $904K in Latin America this session to become the No. 1 animated local pic in Chile. The overseas cume is $6.7M.
LOCAL-LANGUAGE
German comedy Fack Ju Gohte 3 (Suck Me Shakespeer 3) had a big $18.3M weekend in Germany and Austria this session, with $19M to date. That makes it the No. 3 movie at the international box office in the frame. The original picture was a smash in 2013, going on to gross $74M at home. The 2015 sequel had a massive increase at open, ultimately making $70M locally. From Constantin Film and directed by Bora Dagtekin, the film about a bank robber turned teacher stars Elyas M’Barek, Katja Riemann, Max von der Groeben and Jella Haase. It was so anticipated in Germany that Disney opted to release Thor: Ragnarok in the next session.
In France, Marry Me, Dude (Epouse-Moi, Mon Pote) came in at $5.3M to score the No. 10 spot on the overseas chart. At CineEurope this summer, Studiocanal showed off a trailer of the comedy from the folks behind Alibi.com which grossed $25M in France earlier this year.
In Spain, Universal acquisition Marrowbone released on Friday and grossed $1.14M at 337 dates. The thriller is the feature directing debut of Sergio G Sanchez who wrote AJ Bayona’s The Orphanage and The Impossible. Word of mouth is good and Uni is expecting a solid run.
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