Releasing three tentpole movies into December, Warner Bros is walking away with bragging rights to giving the holiday season an important boost – particularly given the absence of an Avatar or a Spider-Man as in recent years.
In total, WB’s three titles on release have grossed $700 million since Wonka first began offshore rollout on December 6. After that, the studio launched Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom worldwide and The Color Purple domestically. The combined split on those is $277M for North America and $423M at the international box office.
Said Adam Aron, Chairman & CEO of AMC Entertainment, on Sunday: “I really want to salute David Zaslav and Warner Bros for its courageous decision to hold its Christmas movie slate intact. The entire movie ecosystem needs for Hollywood’s major studios to continue to release movies theatrically in significant quantity, so that we all can survive and thrive. And when studios do, moviegoers the world over come out to theaters in droves. In Warner’s case, they were rewarded by moviegoers to the tune of $700 million. That is an impressive haul.”
Since January is basically a ghost town in terms of new wide releases, hopefully the momentum continues.
Also making hay this holiday season, the pups of Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie have bounded across the $200M mark globally while Universal’s Trolls Band Together is closing in on that same milestone and Migration has crossed $100M worldwide with several markets still to come.
Breaking down the frame, Warner Bros/DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom generated an estimated $50.5M from 77 overseas markets, a 33% holdover drop from its opening last weekend. The offshore running cume is now $173.6M and the global cume to date is $258.3M (which includes Monday estimates for the domestic holiday).
Individual market holds were strong including France (+55%), Germany (+51%), Italy (+17%), Holland (-7%), Brazil (-9%), Mexico (-11%), UK (-12%), Spain (-23%), Taiwan (-32%), Malaysia (-39%) and Singapore (-39%).
In new play, Australia debuted to an estimated $5.7M at No. 1. The results are 13% ahead of Black Adam, 30% over Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and more than double the opening weekend of The Flash and Meg 2: The Trench. The film has already surpassed the lifetime gross of The Marvels in the market.
The global running cume in Imax is $25.6M with Monday’s holiday included.
Japan is the last market to release on January 12.
The Top 5 to date are: China ($45.8M), Mexico ($12.7M), France ($9M), Germany ($8.4M) and Indonesia ($7.9M).
Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka had a sweet weekend with an estimated $39.1M in 77 overseas markets for a jump of 17% from last session. The offshore cume is now $244.4M with global at $386.9M (which includes domestic’s Monday estimate). Increases were seen in France (+92%), Netherlands (+60%), Germany (+40%), Italy (+29%), Argentina (+29%), Mexico (+20%), Australia (+12%) and Spain (+8%). Additional strong holds were seen in the UK (-8%), Brazil (-9%) and Japan (-15%).
The Top 5 markets are the UK ($55.3M), Mexico ($19.7M), France ($16.2M), Germany ($14.9M) and Australia ($13.9M).
In Imax, Wonka’s global total is $14.5M.
Korea is the last market to release and is set to debut on January 31.
Illumination/Universal’s Migration winged its way to a 70% jump overseas amid the holidays, and crossed $100M worldwide. It added $17.1M in 68 offshore markets this weekend for an international total of $46.5M as staggered rollout continues. The global cume is now $100.8M.
Australia was a new play with $2.9M, since beginning release on December 26th’s Boxing Day holiday. At No. 4 in the market, the animated sky-trip pic is running above Wish which opened on the same date. The first six days of release are in line with Puss in Boots 2 and the weekend result excluding previews is in line with that film.
France was up 116% this session while Germany doubled last weekend’s result. Italy increased 86% and Spain was up 38%. Denmark (+208%) and Netherlands (+130%) also saw mega upticks.
The Top 5 markets to date are Germany ($6.8M), Mexico ($5.4M), France ($6.6M), Italy ($2.9M) and Spain ($2M).
Still to release are Brazil, Korea, the UK and Japan.
Disney’s Wish also jumped in its holdover markets, seeing a 39% rise across the sixth weekend, and taking $15.4M from 44 total. That lifts the international cume to $115.8M and global to $176.4M.
Australia was a new entry at No. 5 for the weekend after opening on Boxing Day and with six weeks of summer school holidays ahead. The running cume there is $2.1M. Taiwan debuted at No. 2 with $600K.
Notable increases were seen in such areas as the Netherlands (+138%), Italy (+92%, where it is still No. 1), France (+76%), Germany (+66%), UK (+59%) and Spain (+50%).
Markets still to come are Korea and Brazil next session.
The Top 5 are France ($15.8M), Japan ($13.7M), UK ($12.3M), Germany ($12.1M) and Spain ($6.1M).
In local news, end-of-year Chinese titles were led by nostalgic drama Shining For One Thing at $77M across two days. The film is directed by Chen Xiaoming and Zhang Pan and based on the TV series. Comedy Johnny Keep Walking was the runner up at an estimated $32.4M over the three-day stretch. IMAX on those pics combined grossed $1.6M in the market.
Meanwhile, starting at 13:13pm Sunday, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opened in China, with an estimated $2.5M on the Imax network, a massive 42% of the nationwide launch day total and the all-time highest Imax opening indexing ever in China. The IMAX global cume jumps to $20.2M.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
*Anyone But You (SNY): $5.8M intl weekend (14 markets); $5.8M intl cume/$33.4M global
Napoleon (SNY): $3.6M intl weekend (62 markets); $146.2M intl cume/$206.7M global
Trolls Band Together (UNI): $1.5M intl weekend (74 markets); $100.5M intl cume/$198.1M global
Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (PAR): $1.1M intl weekend (19 markets); $135.5M intl cume/$2007.M global
*Denotes new