Universal $3B+ As ‘Despicable’ Franchise Takes Ani Crown; ‘Wolf Warrior 2’ Bests ‘Avatar’ Record – Int’l Box Office Final
UPDATED, TUES. 10:30 AM: All grosses have been updated below. Looking ahead, Warner Bros. should see its Christopher Nolan epic Dunkirk cross the $400M worldwide milestone this week just as its superhero film Wonder Woman crossed $800M this weekend, with Japan to come on Friday. The studio’s Annabelle: Creation also is creeping over the $100M mark.
China opens back up to Hollywood films this coming weekend, with Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3, Sony’s Baby Driver and EuropaCorp’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opening Friday there. Both Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort and EuropaCorp’s Luc Besson have done promotional pushes for their respective films in China. Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming will swing into the Middle Kingdom on September 8, and Wonder Woman should take away his audience in Japan this weekend.
The Tom Cruise-starring American Made releases into Australia and also the UK, where Sony’s The Dark Tower, Annabelle: Creation and Lionsgate/Millennium’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard continue their expansions.
All movies have been updated below:
UPDATED, SUN. 5:50 PM from 9:44 AM write-thru: While Universal Pictures crossed $3B at the international box office Friday, marking the second time in the studio’s 105-year history that it has reached this milestone, Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman crossed $800M globally and Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight topped $600M worldwide. The Despicable Me franchise just leapfrogged past Ice Age to grab an ani crown.
And, in no small feat, Wolf Warrior 2 has surpassed Avatar to become the second-highest grossing film ever in a single market and has now become the first non-English language title to enter the global top 100 films of all-time. In addition, the horror film Annabelle: Creation is still playing incredibly strong across its markets.
Internationally, the Despicable Me franchise has just inched past the Ice Age franchise to become the highest-grossing animated film franchise of all time at the international box office. The Illumination Entertainment/Universal family franchise Despicable Me has grossed $2.43B to date whereas Fox’s Ice Age franchise sits at $2.427B. Last week (Aug. 6), the yellow fellows passed the green ogre Shrek to become the highest-grossing animated film franchise globally.
What do the Despicable and Ice Age franchises have in common? Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. Despicable Me 3 is now the third Illumination title to gross over $900M. Despicable Me 3 is also the highest-grossing movie this summer and the third-highest grossing film overall so far in 2107.
In addition, since the release of The Secret Life of Pets in July of last year, Illumination now has had three of the top four highest-grossing animated films (along with Sing) and the second-largest animated film of all time with Minions. Last year, Pets was named Deadline’s most profitable film of the year and Sing was No. 7 on our chart. Last year during this same frame, it was Pets that dominated the box office in its ninth week of release with a big $43.8M and that was due to an opening in Russia.
Universal has been enjoying the run of Despicable Me 3 which is not in the billion dollar club but has an impressive worldwide total of $949.6M. Overall, combined with the studio’s domestic total of $1.4 billion, Universal’s 2017 global box office is $4.4 billion to date. And climbing. The studio reached the $4B milestone in July of this year, driven largely but not only by DM3, and also by The Fate of the Furious which ended its run with a whopping $1.238B.
This weekend saw Annabelle: Creation holding phenomenally well, and two other films sticking their toes into international waters: The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which grossed $21.6M domestically, opened in the U.K. and Russian and online in Japan, while Steven Soderbergh’s indie comedy Logan Lucky ($8M domestic), opened its international run in Australia.
THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD
This action comedy that stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson opened domestically this weekend and also in 11 international markets. Domestic distributor Lionsgate acquired the film from MG for mid-teens for release in the UK. So far, it has taken in a total of $6.55M in its overseas markets (according to ComScore) and on Tuesday, Millennium is giving a clearer picture is the film’s 28 markets. All totals are not in yet, but docs show it made $9.8M with Russia accounting for just $435K. The weekend in the U.K. has taken in $2.54M from 468 sites to claim the No. 1 spot for the pic. Combined with its tepid domestic total, Hitman’s Bodyguard has grossed $33.2M globally so far. In Japan, distribution was handled by Netflix online and there is no grosses reported there as yet.
LOGAN LUCKY
This indie comedy from Steven Soderbergh which appeals to basically the same audience as Hitman’s Bodyguard (older males and females) opened Down Under this weekend day and date with a domestic bow that eked out $8M. It opened in a total of three markets, including the biggest of Australia, where it is being distributed by Village Roadshow. The ensemble comedy led by Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough and Daniel Craig, pocketed a total of $825K, according to ComScore. Of that a total of $551K (including previews) came from Australia’s 250 locales. Other sources note that the film was up a nice 84% from Friday to Saturday. So, the total global cume right now for Logan Lucky sits at $8.87M.
HOLDOVERS
WOLF WARRIOR 2
The action film has dominated the Chinese landscape over the past few weekends, and estimates show in its fourth weekend it has now run its cume up to $768.23M which means that is has bested Avatar‘s eight-year record ($760.5M) to become the second highest grossing film ever in a single market. According to ComScore, the film has grossed a total internationally of $772M in seven markets.
The film now stands behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens which grossed a big $936.7M in North America. The Wu Jing-directed film is being tracked daily by Ent. Group. The film is expected to continue to play throughout next month as well. And reportedly — and not surprisingly — Hollywood has come calling for the director’s next. The worldwide cume, according to ComScore, sits right now at $774.3M, having pulled in another $36M.
After this weekend, Wolf Warrior 2 became also the first non-English language title to enter the global top 100 films of all-time from just its Chinese release. It has not only overtaken the global total of Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714.3M) but also Gravity ($723.15m), Up ($733.3M), which it surpassed on Thursday, as well as The Matrix Reloaded ($742.1M) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
($742.5M), Monsters University ($745.8M), last year’s superhero champ Suicide Squad ($746.6M) which was No. 2 in this time frame last year only behind Secret Life of Pets, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted ($746.9M) and X-Men: Days Of Future Past ($747.95M) – it shot past all all of them and crossed the 2B Yuan mark yesterday. It sits at No. 86 and is continuing its climb.
ANNABELLE: CREATION
With strong openings in Latin America, UAE and in India, the horror film grossed another solid $43.4M in its 56 international markets. The film is playing on 13,390 screens and now has a running cume of $98.7M. Worldwide, the horror film is sitting at $162.8M.
This weekend in Latin America, it held 45% of the international box office with $19.6M for the region; it can lay claim to the 2nd highest industry opening for a horror film behind The Conjuring 2. It opened in some key markets for this genre:
Mexico, where audiences love their horror films, Annabelle: Creation opened to a big $8M on 3,078 screens, dominating the box office with 63% share of the Top Five films. Results are more than double the opening weekend of The Conjuring and 14% ahead of Annabelle. The studio noted, that result is only slightly behind The Conjuring 2 and is the 2nd biggest opening for a horror title.
Brazil also had a great debut with $4.2M from 1,262 screens where it easily sat at No. 1 with a 60% share of the Top Five films. Opening weekend results are tracking ahead of both Annabelle and The Conjuring, but shy of the results in the market for The Conjuring 2. It’s again the 2nd biggest debut for a horror movie.
In India, the horror film debuted to $4.6M (included previews) from 1,159 screens to rank No. 1; in second was the sophomore weekend of a local favorite, Toilet Ek Prem Katha. The opening of Annabelle: Creation was so strong here that is has already surpassed the lifetime cumes of both Annabelle and The Conjuring. In this market, Warner Bros.’ can boast the highest opening ever for a horror film and the second highest studio opening weekend ever.
UAE enjoyed a No. 1 debut with $1.2M from 65 screens, launching ahead of all the films in The Conjuring “universe” and boasting the highest opening weekend ever for a horror film in the country.
The other highlights? Annabelle: Creation has already surpassed the lifetime cume of its 2014 predecessor Annabelle in 24 markets including Holland, Portugal, Russia, Korea, Hong Kong and Indonesia. It also has surpassed the lifetime cume of The Conjuring 2 in 24 markets which includes Sweden, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Korea. And in Asia, the horror film once again dominated with $11.8M for the region, ranking No. 1 in the majority of markets. Additionally, five markets including Ukraine, Thailand and Vietnam have come in over the lifetime cumes of all the films in The Conjuring “universe.”
Running cumes in holdover markets includes Korea with $2.2M from 552 screens for a cume of $12.5M; Indonesia with another $1.5M on 479 screens to keep its No. 1 status and a cume so far of $7.8M; France $1.5M from 192K admissions on 264 screens with a running cume of $5.1M; UK grossed $1.5M from 577 screens, in third place and a 10-day cume of $6.2M; Australia with $1.2M from 212 and still at No. 1 with a running cume of $3.6M; Malaysia $1M from 320 screens for a No. 1 ranking and a cume to date of $3.9M; Russia $986K from 1,233 screens for cume of $4.5M so far, and Italy with $432K on 296 screens with a $3.1M cume. It has now surpassed the lifetime gross for The Conjuring 2 in Italy.
PARADOX
In only four days of release, a Hong Kong-Chinese action film about a cop who is searching for his daughter in Bangkok, has hit the ground running with a big $40.5M haul in China. The film is the third installment of this action series and this weekend was rivaling Wolf Warrior 2 in terms of admissions — only about 300K apart. Paradox nabbed $31M in its debut weekend.
THE WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
Opening in Korea this weekend was 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment’s third in the ape franchise. Overall, the pic grabbed $20.8M from its 62 markets on 7,075 screens. Korea‘s debut of $11.3M marked Fox’s biggest opening in 2017 to add to the running international cume of $205.6M. It is the No. 1 picture in the country.
Combined with the domestic gross of $141M, War has grossed an estimated $346.6M worldwide so far.
Holdover markets continue strong with the film enjoying a three-week run at No. 1 in France where it rode in with another strong $2.57M on its 757 screens. It’s down only 39% from the previous weekend there and has a running total of $17.95M. Other strong holdover markets are Brazil and Germany which are also in their third weekends. Brazil was down only 35% to pick up another $1.7M for a cume to date of $11.6M. Down only 43% from the previous weekend, Germany grabbed another $1.1M to bring its running cume up to $8M.
China (Sept. 15) and Japan (Oct. 13) are still to come.
THE EMOJI MOVIE
This animated film from Sony took in $11.7M this weekend from 7,400-plus screens in 51 markets for a cume to date of $54M. It opened in Russia to No. 1 (Hitman’s Bodyguard also debuted there but we are awaiting grosses) with $2.5M from 2,050 screens. That result put it 34% ahead of Smurfs: The Lost Village. The holdover business for this film continues strong across Europe where overall, it dropped 28% in its entirety. Notable markets include: Netherlands (+8%), Finland (-8%), UK (-11%), Portugal (-26%), Belgium (-28%), Sweden (-29%), and Israel (-30%). The worldwide cume is now at $125.7M.
It will next open in Brazil on Aug. 31, followed by Australia on Sep. 14 and Italy on Sept. 28 with France opening on Oct. 18.
DUNKIRK
Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic marched in with another $9.2M from its 5,130 screens in 61 markets to bring the overseas total up to $229.7M. The Warner Bros.’ release is still No. 1 in the U.K. and holding very strong (it dropped only 27% this weekend). The U.K. is its top market with a strong $64M. Below that is Korea which has taken in $21.5M to date.
But this film has yet to release in some key markets, including China where it will hit on Sept. 1. The worldwide total so far for Dunkirk is $395.2M.
Other key market plays include France with $1M this weekend to bring its cume up to $18M, just above Australia where it has a running total of $16.3M after taking in another $873K this weekend. Dunkirk will roll into Italy on Aug. 31, then China and after that to Japan on Sept. 9.
DESPICABLE ME 3
As we said above, this weekend’s performance of Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 3 helped its distributor Universal Pictures climb past the $3B mark internationally. It also became the top-grossing animated franchise abroad. And this weekend, it took in $9.3M. That gross came from 62 territories to raise its international total to $697.8M and a worldwide cume so far of $949.6M.
There were no new openings this weekend so we’ll look at the holdover markets. In Japan, DM3 is still No. 2 after its 5th weekend in play; it grossed $2.5M for a total of $50.4M. It is the highest grossing Illumination film of all time in this market. In China, it has a cume of $151.9M and is the second highest grossing animated film of all time in China behind only Zootopia ($235M). In other markets: U.K. and Ireland $56.7M; Germany $39.6M; Brazil $38.5M; France $37.7M; Mexico $34.8M; Russia $25.7M; Australia $25M; Argentina $23.6M; Spain $22.4M; Korea $21.1M; Netherlands $11.2M; the Middle East $9.4M; Poland $9.3M; Chile $7.3M and Colombia $7M.
There are three more territories yet to come, including Italy on Aug. 24 where the Descpicable Me franchise has traditionally played exceptionally well. The question is can this become another $1B movie for Universal as it needs to make another $51.6M to complete the deed.
Turkey will bow on Aug. 25 and then Greece on Aug. 31.
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
The sci-fi movie from Luc Besson crossed $100M globally last weekend and this weekend took in another $8.4M from its 52 markets. Its previous weekend grossed $17.4M. It has a running total right now of $93.27M from international markets. The film will bow in China on Friday in hopes of a score with audiences there. Other major markets yet to open is Korea with Japan opening in 2018.
Valerian stayed on top of the charts on its second weekend in Russia, ahead of The Emoji Movie’s opening weekend and took in another $2.3M there. The total so far in Russia is $10.2M (based on 2.25M admissions). The IMAX share is still very high, at 15% of the film’s global box office.
In France, Valerian ranks No. 2 having added another $2.5M to its gross (it also has tallied 3.35M admissions there) to bring the total up to $30.4M.
THE DARK TOWER
Led by openings in three big markets, the U.K., Australia and Spain, The Dark Tower ended up grossing $7.6M this weekend in its 44 markets. It’s playing on approximately 5,600 screens. The international cume is $30.2M. Added with the domestic take of $41.6M, the global take to date is $71.8M. In the U.K., it grabbed another $1.1M from its 580 screens; Australia grossed the same $1.1M but on 276 screens, and Spain took in $805K on its 426 screens.
Next up for this Matthew McConaughey, Idris Elba starring Stephen King adaptation from Sony/MRC will be the key markets of South Korea on Aug. 23, Brazil the following day and then Mexico the day after that.
ATOMIC BLONDE
The Universal and Sierra Affinity action film starring Charlize Theron kicked in another a lower $3.9M (down from the estimated $5M) at 2,023 dates this weekend to bring its international cume up to $26.5M from its 45 markets. So added to the domestic take, Atomic Blonde has a worldwide total of $73.7M so far. The openings are so-so. The film opened in France to No. 5 on its box office chart with $1.4M at 398 spots and Belgium debuted at No. 6 with $226K in its 55 sites. In Italy, Atomic Blonde opened in a very soft market to No. 1 with $829K in 318 spots.
Next weekend, the film opens in Germany, Austria, German-Switzerland, Central America and Trinidad.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
This Sony/Marvel franchise is only two weeks from releasing into China (Sept. 8) and has taken in a total of $411M so far internationally and about $725M worldwide. The Tom Holland-starring film is still playing in 64 markets on 3,100-plus screens.
This weekend Spidey caught another $5.1M in its web with Japan accounting for $2.3M of that in its sophomore frame, which means it dropped 67.6% from the previous weekend. The studio noted the $7.1M from last week representss the extended open which included Friday. With Wonder Woman coming into Japan this Friday, look for audiences to shift gears. Japan’s local running cume is $16.8M.
BULLYPARADE DER FILM
This German parody film is doing incredibly well at the local box office, racking up $4.8M from its 670 screens and commanding a No. 1 spot with 57% share of the Top Five films playing there. The local-language comedy from director Michael Herbig is based on his TV show there so has quite a following. It parodies everything from Back to the Future to Star Trek and Star Wars with a character that looks suspiciously like Austin Powers (yeah, baby!).
It had the best opening weekend for a local film in two years. The movie is a HerbX film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH/Warner Bros. Entertainmentn GmbH co-production.
CARS 3
This Disney animated family film had one opening this weekend in Indonesia and just killed it there. It is still is playing well across its 27 material territories. It has opened so far in 66% of its markets. This weekend the movie drove in with $4.7M. It has a global cume right now of $309.1M and a total international take of $160.3M.
Indonesia opened to an estimated weekend of $900K (including previews), making it the third highest Pixar opening weekend and already exceeding the entire run of Cars and Cars 2. Its top marketes to date are Mexico ($15.6M), Japan ($14.9M), France ($13.9M), the U.K. ($13.4M), Brazil ($10.8M), Russia ($10.5M) and Australia ($10.1M).
Next weekend, Cars 3 will rev into China and Malaysia with Italy (Sept. 14) and Germany (Sept. 28) coming after that.
BABY DRIVER
This Edgar Wright heist film from Sony pulled in yet another $3.6M this weekend from its 3,200-plus screens in 46 markets. The Sony film, which stars Ansel Elgort and Lily James, has taken in $73.5M internationally so far with a running worldwide cume right now of $175.1M. The director keeps teasing that they might mount a sequel as the film crossed the $100M stateside this weekend. Baby Driver has yet to head into some big key markets including Russia (Aug. 24), China (Aug. 25) and then Italy on Sept. 7 followed by South Korea on Sept. 14.
CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE
The animated family film from 20th Century Fox took in another $1.9M weekend after opening in Central America on 149 more screens. Captain Underpants is currently playing in 19 markets on 2,305 screens for a running international cume of $24.7M. In its second weekend in Mexico, the movie flew in with another $396K to bring its total up to $1.8M. There are eight markets upcoming, including the key territories of Australia (Sept. 14), France (Oct. 4), Germany and Brazil (both on Oct. 12) and Italy (Nov. 1).
NOTABLES:
Transformers: The Last Knight (PAR) $1.7M w/e; int’l cume: $471M; worldwide cume: $601M+
Girls Trip (UNI) $1M w/e; int’l cume: $10.59M; ww cume: $114.6M (opens in Australia, New Zealand next weekend)
The Beguiled (UNI) $654K w/e; int’l cume: $6M; worldwide cume: $16.7M (opens in Spain with $468K at 164 dates; opens in France and the Middle East next weekend).
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (PAR) $314K w/e; int’l cume: $463K; ww cume: $3.5M (opened in the UK and Singapore this weekend and travels to Germany on Sept. 7).
Related stories
Patty Jenkins In Final Negotiations On Historic Deal To Helm 'Wonder Woman 2'
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
