‘Joker’ Laughing At $850M WW As ‘Maleficent 2’ Nears $300M & ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Unlucky With $13M Offshore Bow – International Box Office

Nancy Tartaglione

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UPDATE, writethru: This was a busy weekend at the international box office with the sophomore session of Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil seeing a 43% drop to lead studio pics at $64.3M in 100% of its offshore footprint. Behind the sorceress, Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Bron Studios’ Joker continued its laugh-a-minute run to add $47.8M (just 38% off the previous weekend), becoming the No. 3 biggest DC movie ever overseas with $571.5M to date for $849.1M global — where it is also the the top-grossing R-rated movie ever (at current rates) and the first to cross the eight century mark.

But leading all offshore play is China’s Better Days at an estimated $85M. This is particularly notable since the film had been a casualty of a censorship crackdown this summer and had only a three-day release date heads-up for the local distributor.

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In other new play, Terminator: Dark Fate sealed $12.8M in its early debuts. Those include France, Germany and the UK along with Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The Paramount/Skydance pic is released overseas by Disney and jumped on some offshore markets to capitalize on upcoming holidays. The wider release is next session (outside Japan, Taiwan and Poland).

The early result on the Linda Hamilton-starrrer is lower than might have been hoped, but there are holidays coming up in the key markets that bowed this frame. Joker is also simply a wild card and is still pulling remarkable numbers in Europe. Next week, when Joker may (or clearly may not have) played out his hand, Dark Fate is hoping for growth.

Maleficent, meanwhile, held well during the midweeks with families coming out. Particularly, the midweek play in China, where the debut last session was inauspicious, was solid. The international cume is now $228.1M for $293.5M worldwide.

Breakdowns on the films above and more have been updated below.

NEW
TERMINATOR: DARK FATE
Rolling out softly, this latest cyborg installment came up short at $12.8M in 10 material markets which included France, the UK and Germany. The early release ahead of the U.S. and most of the rest of overseas was presumably eyed to get rolling into holidays (next week, the UK will see 67% of school breaks while France has already been on vacation and some of the Asian markets have a day off on Monday). Joker continues to dominate Europe so we’ll see how this plays out next week when the rest of the world debuts, which will include China where there is due to be a lot of competition.

This current session saw Dark Fate take No. 1s in Thailand and Singapore, and No. 2s in the UK, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

The Top 5 this weekend are the UK ($3.8M), France ($3.1M), Thailand ($1.5M), Germany ($1.4M) and Malaysia ($1.1M).

THE ADDAMS FAMILY
MGM’s animated comedy made its offshore debut this session with $10M from 18 Universal markets.Universal is releasing in most hubs and the overseas total is $11.2M to date. Globally, the family has snapped up $83.8M with releases still to come throughout December.

The leading thing this session was Mexico at $2.75M from 880 sites, on par with the UK, also at $2.75M (from 550), and with Spain debuting to No. 3 from 300 at $1.37M.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL
After an international debut that was at the low end of expectations last week, Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil had a good hold of -43% and with families turning up during the midweeks. The overseas weekend was worth $64.3M for an offshore cume of $228.1M and a global tally of $293.5M to date.

Europe held well with France down just 10%, the Netherlands -11%, Poland and Russia off 35%, and the UK and Germany dipping 36%.

Asia/Pacific, excluding China, has grossed $98M regionally while China, which performed solidly in the midweeks, dipped 61% for a $42M cume through Sunday. Also of note, MMOE is now the all-time highest grossing Disney Live Action release in Thailand.

Latin America as an overall region dropped by just 37%, holding No. 1s in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Central America, Venezuela and Paraguay.

Overall, Maleficent 2, while not casting a mega-spell, has passed the lifetime cume of the original in Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina, Russia, India and China (unadjusted).

The Top 5 are China ($42M), Russia ($21.2M), Mexico ($15.1M), Brazil ($10.1M) and France ($9.9M).

JOKER
To paraphrase Arthur Fleck, is it just getting crazier out there? Joker this week became the top-grossing R-rated movie ever worldwide and this weekend added $47.8M from 14,130 screens in 79 overseas markets. The offshore hold was a stellar-38% from the previous weekend. This brings the international running cume to $571.5M and the worldwide cume to $849.1M. The Todd Phillips-directed pic is now looking at around $950M global when all is said and done. And that is without even setting a dancing foot into China.

Among the milestones for the Joaquin Phoenix-starrer, we can now add that it is the top R movie ever international and the No. 3 DC title ever at offshore turnstiles.

It is the highest grossing WB film in 14 markets including Russia, Argentina and Mexico; and the biggest DC pic in n 34 markets including Holland, Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Argentina and Mexico.

It has also mesmerized to the No. 1 spot for the 4th weekend in a row in Europe with a 36% drop to become the highest grossing DC film ever in the region.

In Asia, Joker is the 4th best WB title ever, and in Latin America it is the 2nd best WB movie of all time.

No. 1 holds this session include France, Germany and Japan. The Top 5 markets to date are UK ($57.6M), Mexico ($39.8M), Korea ($35.9M), Japan ($32.8M) and Brazil ($30.2M).

GEMINI MAN
Paramount/Skydance’s Ang Lee-directed pic picked up another $12.7M this frame ($9.4M excluding the $3.3M China take where Fosun is distributing). The total offshore cume is now $104.9M.

New openers on the underperforming Will Smith-starrer include Taiwan at No. 1 with $1.9M at 101 locations; Japan’s No. 2 of $1.8M at 352 locations; and Poland’s No. 5 start with $170K from 201 cinemas.

In China, Gemini Man got crushed by holdovers and newcomer Better Days, adding just $3.3M for a $29.9M cume to date. All major markets have now released and the tops outside China are France ($7.1M), Germany ($6.2M), Mexico ($6.1M), UK ($5.1M) and Russia ($4.7M).

ABOMINABLE
DreamWorks Animation/Pearl Studios’ animated title added $9M from its Universal territories this frame to cume $73M in 60 markets. Combined with Pearl’s China, the offshore total is a running $87.8M for $144.6M global.

While it bowed at No. 3 in France, the start was a strong $3.8M there to give it the top opening day for an animated film in October. The UK hold was -16% for $6.8M to date, and Russia is now at $10.3M after four weekends. Korea opens next weekend and Japan goes next year.

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
In its second weekend of international play, Sony’s sequel stirred up $9M from 5,700+ screens in 40 markets. This takes the international cume to $16.6M.

Russia debuted at No. 2 with $2M, double the first installment. Indonesia opened to $965K, surpassing the lifetime of the original.

The zom-com sequel had good holds in some sophomore markets including Australia (-38%), Sweden (-42%), Spain (-44%), Israel (-46%), and UK (-49%).

Upcoming key markets include France, Germany, Korea, Italy and Japan throughout November.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Downton Abbey (UNI): $3.1M intl weekend (29 markets); $80.4M intl cume ($172.6M global)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (SNY): $1.8M intl weekend (36 markets); $101M intl cume ($142.5M global)
Yesterday (UNI): $500K intl weekend (10 markets); $76.3M intl cume ($149.6M global)

*We will have more on local releases, including India’s Housefull 4 Diwali entry, tomorrow.

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