Refresh for latest…: Universal’s F9 is gearing up to hit the $500M mark globally, a milestone it will cross on Monday as it becomes the first Hollywood movie to do so during the pandemic era, and the first since any studio film originally released during 2019. The Justin Lin-helmed title will also join China’s Hi, Mom and Detective Chinatown 3 as only the third film of any provenance to get there in 2020 and 2021. The worldwide cume through Sunday is $491.5M. This includes domestic‘s $24M three-day.
F9’s $23.8M international box office weekend was powered by No. 1 starts in five new markets including Spain where the film set pandemic records — despite competition for eyeballs with Euro 2020 — and came in ahead of Hobbs & Shaw. The overseas total is now $374.4M in 50 offshore markets. The IMAX global cume is projected at $35M through Monday. The Toretto family still has France, Germany, Japan and Italy to come.
Estimated to come in just below F9 for the global No. 1 spot this weekend is China’s 1921, a propaganda movie officially released on July 1 for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the communist party. The movie did about $34.2M in the four-day session, while previews last weekend accounted for another $11.5M lifting the total debut to $45.7M (F9’s global weekend was $47.8M).
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Also notably in China, and even with the focus on local celebrations, Sony’s Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway hopped to an 11% drop in its fourth frame, grossing a total $27.8M so far there. The sequel overall added $9.2M across 37 markets for a $92.1M international cume demonstrating continued playability as holdover markets dipped just 14%.
Also hitting a milestone, Disney’s Cruella crossed $200M global in its sixth weekend. Of the worldwide total $204.4M, $127.8M is from 43 overseas markets. The weekend was good for $9M in those hubs with a strong -18% hold from last session. In France, where the film is a purely theatrical play, it was No. 1 again with a slight 6% dip from opening. Korea, which is not a Disney+ market, jumped 25%, holding No. 2 again behind local hit Hard Hit. Out of the Top 10 Cruella markets, four do not have Disney+: China, Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia while France is not day-and-date owing to local windowing regulations.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II scared up another $6.3M for an overseas cume of $122.5M which is 10% ahead of the original; global is $268.3M. New Line/Warner Bros’ The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It conjured $6M to lift the international total to $111.4M and global to $173.7M.
Both of those films benefited from a finally reopened Germany, and it’s making distribution smile to have such a major back in business. WB/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong was No. 1 there with $1.3M, followed by Conjuring 3 at No. 2 ($1.2M), Peter Rabbit 2 at No. 3 ($1M), Constantin’s local family comedy Catweazele at No. 4 and AQP2 at No. 5 ($880K). Restrictions currently vary from one state to another and should ease over time.
A note about Godzilla Vs Kong: the total international cume now stands at $346M for $446.6M global, however, these figures do not include Japan which also released this weekend via Toho. The Japan gross will be reported on Monday.
In new releases, Universal/Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge started rollout in 22 offshore markets for a $3.6M debut that was led by Mexico. Overall, the openings are in line with Purge: Election Year.
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