‘It’ Breaks Genre Records With $62M Debut, Spider-Man Swings Past $800M WW – Int’l Box Office

Stephen King’s It is having an incredible weekend overseas, breaking records across the globe and pulling in a whopping $62M on approximately 10,665 screens in 46 markets. That means It opened to over $180M globally if estimates hold in the states with an expected $123M to $124M domestic take. Spider-Man: Homecomingwhich opened in China this past week to $21.6M and has culled $70.8M there to date and just swung past $800M globally for Sony with an $823M take. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk passed the $300M internationally and is teetering on the $500M mark worldwide for Warner Bros. But first, let’s look at  WBros. and New Line’s It.

The film’s debut is now the biggest opening ever for a horror film, ranked No.1 in virtually all markets — and that wasn’t that hard to do given that audiences have been hungry for new product — and It marked the biggest September opening ever (not including China) and the biggest for The Warner Bros./New Line Cinema of 2017 for Russia, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Chile.

The film, which has taken North America by storm breaking multiple records and breathing energy into a lifeless box office, starting busting through records on the first day out in such countries as the U.K., Brazil, Russia, Australia, across Eastern Europe and in Spain, where its grosses were more than double of The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2 (+68%) and Annabelle.

It has yet to bow in Mexico — a country that loves the horror genre — or in Germany or France. Stephen King’s last IP outing was The Dark Tower where its best plays  have been in Germany, France, Russia and the U.K. It opens in Mexico in four days (Sept. 14), followed by France on Sept. 20 and then Germany on Sept. 28 so those are big markets yet to come.

On Imax, It took in $10M globally which makes it the company’s best ever worldwide September play. It also was Imax’s best ever opener in any September in history. Between the phenomenal success of It, Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s debut in China, and Dunkirk‘s performance Imax enjoyed a big $17.1M haul globally on 603 screens. In fact, this almost doubles last year’s Sully‘s opening weekend of $9.5M total.

NEW

IT

With over $180M globally and $62M logged internationally, Stephen King’s It dished up a scary serving to overseas audiences hungry for new fare. The horror genre generally does well in Latin American markets and it opened in Brazil to $5.6M where the release date was strategized to benefit from their Independence Day holiday. On 846 screens that gross put it atop the record books in the country as the biggest opening weekend ever for a horror film. Spain took in $3.1M from 452 screens, which was good for roughly a 50% share of the Top 5 films. That opening also was the biggest opening weekend for the studio so far this year. The next Latino market to open will be Argentina on Sept. 21.

The best play around for It in its opening weekend by far was the U.K. which grabbed $12.3M from its 1,342 screens to become the biggest weekend ever in the market for a horror film.

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In Russia, the crazed clown commanded a 70% share of the Top 5 films. It grossed a big $6.7M for the weekend after opening to a first day haul of $1.3M. The film not only took a record as the biggest opening day ever for a horror film, but also the biggest opening weekend for the studio so far this year as well as the best September opening of all time. It was on 1,639 screens.

In Australia crushed the competition with a 70% share of the Top 5 films, with $5.9M from its 544 screens, yet again becoming the biggest opening day ever for a horror film and the best opening for the studio this year. Like Russia, it also chalked up the best September opening ever.

Korea opened on a non-traditional Wednesday where its first day was $554K and rose from No. 2 behind a local title to No. 1 by the weekend to take it with $4.3M for a four-day cume. It was ahead of both Conjuring films and on par with Annabelle‘s opening.

It also debuted in a handful of other Asian markets where collectively it soaked up $10M.

Holland grabbed $1.4M on 124 screens — it opened on a Thursday — and held onto a 56% share of the Top 5 films and also became the biggest opening day ever for a horror film. Poland also debuted to $1.15M on 272 screens to become the biggest opening weekend ever for the genre there and the best of 2017 so far for Warner Bros.

Record-breaking Thursday openings also were noted in Denmark ($222K) and several markets in Eastern Europe (Lebanon, Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia), where it also now holds the record as the biggest opening day ever for a horror film.

The next key market to open is Sweden in three days. Italy will open Oct. 19.

Much more to come … keep refreshing

HOLDOVERS:

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Spidey swung past $800M this weekend to $823M globally, thanks to China where it webbed a strong $70.8M. It now ranks as the third biggest superhero opening of all time in the market behind Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. The film, which pushed last week opener’s Dunkirk in the market aside, grossed $71.8M internationally from 21,300+ screens in 47 markets for a cume of $495.3M. Domestic now sits at $327M where it has been in the Top 10 for 10 weeks in a lackluster North American market (until this weekend).

Spidey will cross $500M internationally likely tomorrow and now becomes the third-highest box office total in the franchise for Sony.

In China, Spider-Man: Homecoming had the benefit of 442 Imax screens and took in $6M there, which earned the distinction of becoming the best-ever Imax opening weekeend in September and as well as the best opening weekend for any Sony title in Imax format. Imax dropped Homecoming trailers ahead of An Army, Once Upon A Time, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Cars and Dunkirk.

China was the biggest international market for the last two installments of the Spider-Man franchise. My colleague Nancy Tartaglione did a very good comparison of all the films in the story here.

Sony went all-out in China to make sure Homecoming opened well. Prior to its release on Sept. 8, it partnered with Momo on social, iQiyi on video, QQ for text IMs, with Baidu (when users searched for Spider-Man, Homecoming would take over the entire screen) and a number of promo partners including Audi, Doritos, Dell, Mizone, CapitaLand, M&M, Xiaomi, and HTV Vive as well as its corporate parent Sony just to push the word out on different platforms

In addition, it spent on outdoor and digital platforms while stars Tom Holland and director Jon Watts did a publicity tour two days prior to the film’s opening. All that contributed to a big $70.8M take in the Middle Kingdom.

The question is will he hold as Spidey will be facing War for the Planet of the Apes next weekend in the country.

DUNKIRK

Warner Bros. is not only having a great run stateside, but is also doing exceptionally well in international markets with Dunkirk and their other horror film Annabelle: Creation. Christopher Nolan’s sweeping WWII epic just crossed $300M internationally and will cross $500M this week globally. Dunkirk took in $13.5M from its 52 markets where it is playing on 13.025 screens. The overseas tally is now $309.1M and globally it sits at $492.2M.

Dunkirk may have been knocked from its No. 2 perch in the Middle Kingdom by Spider-Man: Homecoming, but it still managed to grab another $6M away from the superhero’s hands. In China, playing on 9,500 screens, its total tally now is $46.4M.

The big opening for the war drama was in Japan where it debuted to an excellent $3M on 444 screens to rank No. 1. That result is on par with its comps American Sniper and is a big 72% over the result of Nolan’s Interstellar.

In another holdover market, Italy, Dunkirk grossed$2.1M on 668 screens, just narrowly coming in at No. 2. It still had the best per screen average of the Top 5 films. The cume to date there is no $7.1M.

ANNABELLE: CREATION

Yes, there is another horror film in international markets other than It. And it also belongs to Warner Bros. Annabelle: Creation picked up another $8.6M from its 61 markets to raise its international cume to $184M … for a little perspective on how big It is, that’s around the same gross It made globally in its first weekend out.

Annabelle: Creation is playing on 5,335 screens and has a global cume right now of $280.2M. Another hit for the studio which has been on a roll as late with Wonder Woman as well.

In its second weekend in play in Argentina — and remember Latin American countries love the horror genre — the movie scared in another $1.7M from 343 screens to only drop 37%. Once again, it kept a tight hold of the No. 1 spot at the box office there and has a cume to date of $4.9M. It’s top market is one that It will release into in just four days: Mexico where it has culled $18.1M.

A couple of things to note on this movie: the horror film is also still doing well in Brazil, a market into which It just debuted. In Brazil, it’s down only 37% from last weekend and has a running cume of $12.1M. But Korea is Annabelle: Creation‘s second best market outside of Mexico; it has grossed $13.8M to date in Korea. And in Malaysia, the film is now at a total gross of $5.4M, which has surpassed all films in the Conjuring universe.

AMERICAN MADE

With an estimated total of $33.4M internationally, America Made pulled in another $8.1M this weekend for Universal after adding markets over the past three weekends. The Doug Liman-directed, Tom Cruise starring film is now in 43 territories, having added in 8 more this weekend. There are still 22 territories to open over the next three months.

This weekend’s big opening market was Germany, where it ranked No. 2 with $1.4M (German-Switzerland opened with $339K). It also debuted in Hong Kong in the No. 2 spot with $481K. And in holdovers, Spain is No. 3 and chased in another $961K in its second weekend for a total to date there of $3.4M. The UK and Ireland is also holding strong where it remains No. 2 in its third weekend of play. Adding another $829K, the total cume for the film there is now $5.6M. The Netherlands is also in its second weekend and has a running cume of $1.1M after bringing in another $437K.

Next weekend’s major territory drops are France, Korea, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, the Philippines, French-Switzerland, Belgium, Chile, Panama, and Peru.

More to come … keep refreshing.

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