‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ Thrashes Past $400M Global; ‘Demon Slayer’ Reaches New WW Milestone – International Box Office

Nancy Tartaglione
·4 min read

TUESDAY UPDATE, writethru after Sunday AM post: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong has reached a new global benchmark, crossing $400M with a confirmed cume through Sunday of $406.5M worldwide. Of that, $320M comes from the international box office in 41 markets. The monster mash, already the biggest Hollywood movie of the pandemic era, continues to track above its Monsterverse predecessors. It is the highest-grossing of the films in 19 markets including China, Russia, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mexico.

In combined like-for-like markets and at today’s rates, GVK is running 6% above Kong: Skull Island, 44% over Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and 90% ahead of Godzilla. And, there are still over 20 markets to come including Brazil, Japan and the UK.

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GVK‘s weekend was worth $5.6M offshore. China’s run is winding down with a fantastic $183M through Sunday — the best Hollywood performance since Covid began — and could still grow a bit during this week. Australia ($20.1M), Mexico ($18.3M), Taiwan ($12.4M) and Russia ($11.7M) round out the Top 5.

Rounding the $400M corner, WB President of International Distribution, Andrew Cripps, said, “It has been thrilling to see this film mark the return to theaters around the globe, with audiences continuing to grow and to uphold the importance of the universal shared experience of going to the movies.”

In other milestones, and coming off a strong domestic opening, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train has now notched an estimated $457M worldwide. Along with North America, the anime adaptation and the biggest Japanese title ever opened in Latin America (save Brazil) this session and we are hearing strong performances in some of those offshore markets including $1.3M out of Mexico as well as a $700K No. 1 debut in Spain. The IMAX cume on Demon Slayer is now $28.6M global.

Based on our estimates, and those of our sources, Demon Slayer has surpassed China’s The Eight Hundred to become the No. 1 movie of 2020 worldwide, when including its 2021 takings. Despite some other numbers that are out there, The Eight Hundred has an actual gross of $450M, again according to several sources (this has to do with trued-up figures based on real-time exchange rates during that film’s full run).

In an intense battle, Demon Slayer was edged by New Line/Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat in their North American bows this weekend. Overseas, Mortal Kombat had a $6.5M third session in 36 markets for a $27.8M cume to date. Globally, the total so far is $51.1M. The game adaptation debuted in Australia this session with $3.2M to rank as the 3rd best R-rated opening of all time. Still to come are such key majors as the UK on May 17, Brazil on May 20 and Japan on June 18.

Back in Japan this weekend, a new two-week state of emergency was declared in Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures which saw some cinema closures and which will eat into the upcoming Golden Week period. Still, Warner Bros’ Rurouni Kenshin: The Final bowed to a strong $6.9M (745.6M yen) with $450K in IMAX. The release of the first chapter of the last go-round for the series played on 472 screens and came in second behind last week’s global winner Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (full numbers on the latter are not yet available; its IMAX Japan cume is $1.8M).

In other IMAX news, the China and Russia rerelease of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers added $1.2M in those markets. The Two Towers did about $4M overall in its new China reissue.

China generally had a slow weekend as it readies for the May Day holiday which kicks off with a host of new local releases next Friday and Saturday. They include Zhang Yimou’s Cliff Walkers and New Classics’ suspense drama Home Sweet Home (both with IMAX components), crime actioner Break Through The Darkness, romance pic My Love and fantasy comedy Tiger Robbers.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
The Unholy (SNY): $1.9M intl weekend (12 markets); $4.7M intl cume/$16/3M (Mexico launched at No. 1 with $1.2M this session)
Man In Love (SNY): $1.2M (Taiwan only); $11.3M Taiwan cume
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (SNY): $900K intl weekend (2 markets); $16.3M intl cume
Nobody (UNI): $831K intl weekend (16 markets); $16.6M intl cume/$38.1M global
Promising Young Woman (UNI): $399K intl weekend (17 markets); $6.9M intl cume (UNI & non-UNI markets)/$13.3M global
Tom & Jerry (WB): $64.2M intl cume/$107.7M global
Judas And The Black Messiah (WB): $889K intl cume/$6.3M global

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