SATURDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: It is incredible, and incredibly encouraging, to see that here we are with yet another amazing weekend at the global and international box office. To wit: the third week of Warner Bros’ Barbie continues to reign tall as she surfs towards the coveted $1B milestone this weekend. Through Friday, the Greta Gerwig-directed pic is at $951.M worldwide including $527.7M from 69 overseas markets in release.
What’s more, as noted previously, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has reached the $500M global milestone, on its way to an estimated $551M through Sunday. (See more here)
On Barbie, the Top 5 to date are the UK ($80.6M), Mexico ($46.6M), Brazil ($37.2M), Australia ($36M) and, somewhat improbably, China ($30.1M).
Meanwhile, WB’s China coproduction Meg 2: The Trench is now in 75 markets and has grossed $46M through Friday after a strong $34M Friday. That includes a terrific $20.5M start in China at No. 1 yesterday, on par with Kong: Skull Island, and ahead of the original Meg (+37%) as well as more recent comps like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Mission 7.
CMC releases the movie in China where today it was overtaken by a local total in preview release. The social and critical scores in China on Meg 2 are higher than the original, but it’s getting beat in presales for the next several days.
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PREVIOUS FRIDAY: As she heads into the third weekend of release, Warner Bros’ Barbie has hit two new milestones, crossing both $500M at the international box office and the nine-century mark worldwide. The Greta Gerwig-directed phenomenon added $16.8M from 69 offshore markets on Thursday, bringing the overseas total to $509.7M through yesterday. Globally, the doll is standing tall with $916.1M as she looks to rollerblade past $1B this weekend.
The Top 5 markets to date for the Margot Robbie-starrer are the UK ($77.3M), Mexico ($45.8M), Brazil ($36.5M), Australia ($34.3M) and China ($29.5M).
Speaking of China, Warner Bros’ co-production Meg 2: The Trench has taken its first bites at the international box office, grossing $11.5M through Thursday in 57 markets. The giant shark also swam into China today, opening with an estimated RMB 146.1M ($20.4M). That figure is not included in the numbers through Thursday and while there is not yet a Maoyan audience score in the market, the ticketing platform is predicting an RMB 1B ($140M) finish across the full run.
The first Meg installment was a surprise summer hit when it opened in August 2018. Jason Statham returns here while massive Chinese action star Wu Jing joins the proceedings. Ben Wheatley directs the story of a research team taking on countless creatures whose deep-water habitat is being invaded. Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgari are screenwriters.
Thursday for the pic was worth $8.1M. Latin American markets opened strong with the film ranking No. 1 for the region, topping the opening days of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny by 134%, Pacific Rim: Uprising by 94% and Godzilla: King of the Monsters by 51% as well as coming in roughly on par with The Meg.
The top plays to date are France with $2M in the first two days, followed by Mexico with $1.4M on Thursday at No. 1 and above Kong: Skull Island (+4%), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (+8%), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (+29%), Rampage (+30%) and nearly triple the opening day of Indiana Jones 5. Germany at $1.1M was double the first day of the original and is 6% above Indy 5, 42% over Rise of the Beasts and 32% over the first day of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Italy is tracking ahead of most comps including the original, Indy 5 and M:I7. Indonesia is next up with $537K while Netherlands debuted on Thursday with a strong 3D share of 54%. Opening day results are 19% above The Meg, 27% ahead of King of the Monsters, 49% over Mission 7 and 52% ahead of Jurassic World Dominion.
A further 18 markets release today, including Spain, the UK and China.
Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer is, meanwhile, on its way across the $500M mark globally with $478.8M through Thursday. Yesterday’s offshore gross was $10.6M, lifting the international box office cume to $278.9M.
In the UK, the through-Thursday total on the Universal film is $43.1M, in line with Dunkirk. Germany is next best with a running cume of $23M, performing 15% above The Dark Knight Rises and surpassing the lifetime of The Dark Knight, having already overtaken the lifetimes of Dunkirk, Interstellar and Tenet. France has a market cume to date of $21M, which is 11% above The Dark Knight Rises and has surpassed the full run of The Dark Knight. Australia is now at $15.3M, 58% above Dunkirk, having surpassed the lifetimes of Interstellar and Tenet. India has a running total of $14.7M, having already surpassed the lifetimes of all Nolan comps. The title is the 2nd biggest Hollywood movie of the year behind Fast X in that market.
Other notable cumes include Mexico at $12.6M; Spain with $12.1M and performing above The Dark Knight Rises (+35%), having passed the lifetimes of Dunkirk, Interstellar and Tenet; Saudi Arabia at $9.3M which is bigger than the lifetime of all Nolan comps; and Netherlands where Oppenheimer has become Nolan’s biggest film ever, with $9.2M so far.
More to come throughout the weekend.
