UPDATED: Warner Bros’ Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was greeted with a very warm reception during its Cannes Film Festival world premiere in an early showcase last week, and amid much love for franchise architect George Miller. It has followed up with strong critical and social scores. Nevertheless, in this currently wonky theatrical landscape, the prequel underperformed in its global opening this launch weekend, grossing $58.9M from 76 total markets through Sunday.
That includes $33.3M from overseas play and $25.6M from domestic; the latter for its Friday-Sunday. We are waiting on confirmation of the four-day North American number given the domestic holiday on Monday.
Yes, we expected higher when we did our preview earlier this week, and perhaps the industry as a whole was praying too much at the feet of this origin story. It’s undeniably got some amazing action.
Important to recall that while we think of 2015’s rock-and-roll Fury Road as a franchise renaissance (deservedly), that movie ended its run at $380M worldwide (unadjusted). This is a fanboy-driven R-rated property that appeals to a certain audience. Fans rushed out to see Furiosa this weekend but it’s not attracting the casual moviegoer and yes, there is fabulous weather in Europe which keeps folks outside rather than in cinemas.
The top opening market was Korea with $6.4M and a 96% CGV score, becoming the first movie to land in the No. 1 spot ahead of long-running local blockbuster The Roundup: Punishment. It also came in ahead of such comps as Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (+43%), Godzilla x Kong (+89%) and Blade Runner 2049 (+256%). IMAX accounted for a strong 17% share of the total box office from just 24 screens.
France was a No. 2 start behind local hit Un P’tit Truc en Plus, and debuted to $2.6M from 859 screens. This is above John Wick 3 (+24%) and John Wick 2 (110%).
The UK leaned in for $2.5M at No. 1, on par with JW2 and with IMAX at 21% from 54 screens. Mexico also gave the movie a No. 1 start with $2.4M at 41% higher than Blade Runner 2049 and 139% over JW2. Miller’s home turf and the film’s backdrop of Australia gave the pic a $2.2M start at No. 1, on par with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and 82% bigger than JW2.
Furiosa also gave the franchise and Miller their best starts ever in Hong Kong, India and Taiwan. Greece and Japan open later this month with China releasing June 7.
The global IMAX launch was $9.5M; of that, $4.3M is from 400 overseas screens through Sunday. The film saw very strong indexing in most markets including Hong Kong, where the five IMAX screens accounted for an epic 27% of the nationwide total.
Meanwhile, some milestones were reached this session (IF, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – see below) and some are in the crosshairs. 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, with lower critics and audience scores than Furiosa, is nearing the $300M mark globally after an international session that added $20.6M in 52 material offshore markets. The overseas cume is now $172M from three frames, and $294.8M worldwide (this includes the three-day domestic session).
The offshore hold was -50% overall with good stickiness in Sweden (-26%), Denmark (-31%), Netherlands (-33%), UK (-34%), Mexico (-37%), Brazil (-42%), Germany (-43%) and Japan (-44%).
KPA is already the No. 2 Hollywood film of 2024 in Peru and the No. 3 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Versus competition in local markets, the Wes Ball movie this weekend is still the No. 2 studio title in France, Spain, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Central America, Paraguay as well as Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam.
Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($25.3M), France ($17.3M), Mexico ($15.5M), UK ($13M) and Brazil ($7.6M).
While it’s been strutting around international markets for a few weeks now, Sony/Alcon’s The Garfield Movie padded into North America this session, lifting the global cume through Sunday to $91.1M. The overseas weekend was $14M in 51 markets for a running total of $66.3M amid a terrific 29% drop in the holdovers.
Market info includes the UK opening to $2.5M followed by the Middle East with $1M. Mexico has now grossed $17.4M after four frames and Germany has lapped up $5.2M after three.
Still to release are Indonesia, Australia, Poland, France and Japan through the summer.
Paramount’s IF hit a new milestone, befriending another $11.3M in 64 markets for an offshore cume of $40M and passing the century mark worldwide with $103.6M.
France is leading play with $6.8M to date, followed by Mexico with $5.5M, the UK with $5.4M, Australia at $3.4M and Germany at $2.4M.
The John Krasinski-made film opens next weekend in Israel, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Trinidad. Japan will open on June 14, followed by China on June 15.
In another milestone, Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire crossed $200M globally on Friday now with an international cume of $87.7M and a worldwide total of $200.4M. It’s finishing its run with the UK the lead market at $19.5M, followed by Australia ($8.5M) and Mexico ($8.5M).
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
The Fall Guy (UNI): $4.1M intl weekend (81 markets); $71.6M intl cume/$143.8M global
Tarot (SNY): $3.2M intl weekend (51 markets); $20M intl cume/$37.2M global
Kung Fu Panda 4 (UNI): $1.2M intl weekend (82 markets); $346M intl cume/$539.2M global
Abigail (UNI): $482K intl weekend (77 markets); $15.1M intl cume/$41M global
Bob Marley: One Love (PAR): $400K (Japan only); $82.5M intl cume/$179.4M global