UPDATED: Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later has come alive with an estimated $60M worldwide bow. The split is dead even at the domestic and international box office with $30M each for the auteur-driven R-rated Sony horror movie. This is slightly above pre-weekend projections.
The opening in 59 offshore markets is higher than recent auteur horror Sinners (+76%) and on par with Nosferatu. It’s bigger than horror franchise films A Quiet Place: Part II (+13%), Evil Dead Rise (+24%) and Smile 2 (+29%), all in like-for-like markets at current exchange rates.
Amid a heatwave raging in the market, 28 Years Later stormed the UK at a No. 1 start of $6.4M. Mexico was the next best bow at $2.7M. The Middle East as a region launched with $1.8M. Other notable market totals include Australia ($1.7M), Korea ($1.5M), Germany ($1.3M), France ($1.3M) and Spain ($1.2M).
The other new opener this weekend, Pixar/Disney’s Elio did not meet expectations, lifting off with $35M global, of which a soft $14M was from 43 material overseas markets (80% of the footprint with China, Japan and Spain to come later). This is well below the pre-weekend projection despite positive audience and social reactions. Note that Elio, which skews young, opened into an international marketplace where kids’ school holidays have largely not yet begun. Elemental opened into the same corridor in 2023, albeit on a more staggered release, and ended up continuing to build. To create franchises, studios have to start somewhere — Disney has the top 3 original animated global openers post-pandemic in Elemental, Encanto and now Elio — but the latter didn’t click out of the gate and will need to capitalize on holidays and a lack of new animated entries until Smurfs in mid-July (see Anthony’s deep dive for more).
Elio scored its best overseas opening in Korea, where it jumped from No. 4 on Friday to No. 1 on Saturday and ended the frame with an estimated $1.8M at No. 1 for the frame. Behind Korea were Mexico ($1.4M), France ($1.3M), UK ($1.2M) and Italy ($800K).
As expected, the overall offshore and global weekend was again led by Universal’s How to Train Your Dragon which has fired up $358.2M worldwide from two sessions. The overseas total so far is $197.7M. In the sophomore frame, the live-action take on the beloved animated franchise’s first entry added $53.6M in 81 markets for a 37% drop from opening.
Excluding China, the international cume is above Sonic the Hedgehog 3, HTTYD3 and The Little Mermaid at the same point.
The second weekend saw some strong holds including in Brazil (-13%), Australia (-28%), Germany (-28%), Netherlands (-32%), China (-32%), Korea (-33%) and Mexico (-38%). HTTYD remained the No. 1 movie in all markets save UK/Ireland, China and Korea. Japan releases in September.
The Top 5 to date are Mexico ($24.5M), China ($23.2M), UK ($16.8M), Brazil ($12.6M) and Korea ($9.6M). The global Imax cume is $28.4M including $13M from international.
Turning back to Disney, Lilo & Stitch passed yet another milestone, crossing $900M now with $910.3M global through today. The 5th weekend surfed up another $19.7M (-39%) from 52 material offshore markets, taking the international cume to $523.6M.
Tops on this one are Mexico ($64.2M), UK ($46.3M), France ($37.1M), Brazil ($34.5M) and Germany ($29M).
Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, also in its 5th weekend, has reached $540.9M global to date, after adding $12.8M from 66 overseas markets during the session. The international running cume is $362.5M led by China ($60.6M), UK ($32.9M), Japan ($30.2M), Korea ($22.5M) and France ($21.8M).
The worldwide Imax total is $74.5M.
In local news, we’re hearing estimates that Indian superstar Aamir Khan’s latest, Sitaare Zameen Par, is on track for an $8M opening in the home market this weekend, and $11.5M global.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Materialists (SNY/A24): $2.1M intl weekend (11 markets); $7.5M intl cume/$31.4M global
Karate Kid: Legends (SNY): $1.7M intl weekend (56 markets); $48.8M intl cume/$98.3M global
Final Destination Bloodlines (WB): $1.7M intl weekend (75 markets); $145.3M intl cume/$280.1M global
The Phoenician Scheme (UNI): $875K intl weekend (59 markets); $15.8M intl cume/$32M global
Sinners (WB): $455K intl weekend (49 markets): $86.5M intl cume/$363.8M global
