UPDATED, all films added, 11:55 AM: Universal’s The Fate Of The Furious has shot off to a record $432.3M debut at the international box office. Couple that with domestic’s $100.2M launch and the worldwide debut is $532.5M, the biggest global opening for a film, ever. So move over Indominous Rex and Kylo Ren, F8 in 63 territories this weekend bested both Jurassic World‘s record offshore debut of $316.7M; and, with North America, Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ $529M worldwide bow.
A clear No. 1 in all markets where it opened this frame, F8 dusted myriad records: It is the biggest opening weekend of all time in 17; the top Universal bow in 21; and the biggest Fast & Furious franchise start in 32.
The bulk of overseas comes from China which was the linchpin this weekend — when F7 opened in 2015, it did so without the Middle Kingdom in the first suite. The gross there is a staggering $190M. That’s the biggest 3-day start of all time and the No. 1 debut for a Hollywood film. It is the 2nd best opening weekend ever behind only 2016’s local title, The Mermaid, which had the benefit of four days of previews over the New Year period last year.
For F. Gary Gray’s turn at the wheel of this 16-year-old series, the big swing was having China included in the launch (Russia, too, at $14.1M). F7 opened to $250.5M without China and Russia, which because of the exchange rate fluctuations, is about $218M. So, if you take out China and Russia from the equation, The Fate of the Furious still beats F7 at $228.2M.
Folks ahead of the weekend were seeing the F8 debut in the mid-$300Ms overseas, with some going as high as $400M. But it was always going to hinge on the Middle Kingdom. F7 currently holds the record as the No. 1 import at $391.3M and it would be foolish to bet against F8 getting to that ballpark when the dust settles. Local buzz is strong and there is nothing coming up that looks likely to run it off the road.
Apart from China, the top grossing territories include Mexico $17.8M; the UK ($17M); Russia ($14.1M); Germany ($13.6M); Brazil ($12.8M); France ($10.5M); Korea ($10.5M); India ($10.4M); and Taiwan ($9.7M).
Is $1B worldwide possibly in the cards further down the line? Sure – and if not, it’ll be close. These sorts of films are always going to be front-loaded, so it’s a question of how the multiple comes in. It could range overall from a 2.1x-2.5x with some smaller markets over-indexing to a 3 or even a 5. Local reviews are good on this entry for a franchise that crosses cultural divides and plays to a (ahem!) universal audience. There is also clear play ahead for F8 until Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 begins offshore rollout on April 25.
In IMAX, there’s $31.1M in Vin Diesel’s trunk. This was the widest release ever for the format with 1,079 screens and sets a new April opening record, topping F7’s $20.7M bow. Overall, it’s the 4th biggest opening ever for IMAX.
Internationally, F8 put $22.6M in the tank on 681 IMAX screens, 395 in China. That’s second only to Universal’s Jurassic World ($23.2M). In China, $14M gives IMAX the 2nd biggest 3-day, behind Warcraft ($15.2M, also a Universal picture, with Legendary). F8 got off the block with a 45% jump on F7 in Middle Kingdom local currency. Elsewhere, it is the No. 1 IMAX opening ever in India, the UAE, Belgium, Egypt, Argentina and others. Per-screen averages are remarkable in Sweden ($120K), Angola ($103K), UAE ($73K), Puerto Rico ($72K), Taiwan ($71K), Denmark ($63K), Argentina ($57K), Netherlands ($55K), and Indonesia ($55K).
OTHER NEWS:
20th Century Fox
In other titles playing this weekend, Logan, the X-Men series spinoff film starring Hugh Jackman and Dafne Keen from 20th Century Fox, just hit another milestone today, crossing the $600M worldwide mark. Four weeks ago, it became the fourth highest-grossing R-rated film ever with roughly $598M (behind The Passion of the Christ with $611.89M). This weekend finally pushed it to $603.2M. The movie brought in $381.6M internationally and $221.6M from North America, so about 63% of its total cume came from audiences abroad.
Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, which crossed $1B earlier this week, is now at $1.043B and has become the 22nd highest-grossing movie of all time globally, notably topping Zootopia, Finding Dory and Jurassic Park.
And Lionsgate just finished its best calendar quarter ever that didn’t include a Hunger Games or Twilight film with a $755.6M at the worldwide box office — the breakdown is $364.1M domestic/$391.5M internationally. It was, of course, mainly bouyed by the almost was Best Picture La La Land and the Keanu Reeves actioner John Wick: Chapter Two.
HOLDOVERS:
THE BOSS BABY
Fox
Maintaining its position as the No. 2 international player, Fox/DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby is not slowing down this weekend in its 61 markets. With a big $36.8M weekend gross (hey, kids are out of school for the Easter holiday), this animated family film had outstanding holds in the U.K., France, Germany and Australia. It also opened in Spain, Hong Kong and Argentina to strong numbers.
Its international cume rose to $171.1M, making it bigger than Sing and The Croods during the same point of their releases and figuring in the exchange rates, according to Fox. Domestically, this bad baby has taken in an estimated $116.3M for a global tally of $287.4M.
The biggest market continues to be the U.K. where it grossed another $4.39M this weekend and was up 26% to total $20.46M. It’s No. 2 in the market, behind — you guessed it — Fate of the Furious. Spain opened with a very strong No. 2 showing with $4.3M as did Hong Kong with $2.79M and Argentina with $1.86M (making it four times bigger than Trolls opened to there).
Down Under, the Boss is holding strong in Australia and is No. 3 in the marketplace with a $12.46M cume while it just opened this weekend in New Zealand 30% bigger than Trolls. Germany saw a 28% increase this weekend to add another $2M to its $8M cume. In Denmark, the film doubled its opening weekend gross. It’s total there is $1.79M.
There are 15 more markets coming next weekend for this diapered big shot, including Holland, Italy and Poland.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Disney
Despite the impact of Fate of the Furious, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast held up well in the international marketplace this weekend, dropping only 41% overall and a mere 21% across Europe. In its fifth weekend, the live-action film from director Bill Condon twirled in with another $22M to continue its climb past the $1B mark. Along with the domestic take of $13.6M over this three-day holiday weekend, the musical is now at $1.043M globally with roughly 56% coming from international markets. The breakdown is $588.4M abroad and $454.7M domestic.
The result is that it’s now the 12th highest-grossing movie of all time domestically and the 22nd highest grossing movie of all time internationally (see above). Its biggest territories are China with $85.8M and the U.K. with $81M. Especially across Europe, it’s still a beast holding strong during this Easter session. For instance, in week 5, it’s only down 5% in France where it has grossed a total of $19M and down 7% in the U.K. where tomorrow by this time, the live-action film based on Disney’s 1991 classic animated success will become the 10th biggest movie of all time — giving the studio something to crow about. The studio now has four of the all-time Top 10 there with three of them having been released only in the past 16 months.
In some of its 56 markets, Beauty and the Beast soared this holiday weekend: the Czech Republic saw a 41% increase and Denmark was up 18%. In the Philippines, the film has enthralled audiences, making it the highest-grossing movie in industry history with $13.4M.
In Europe, the current cume of $242M has already passed the total runs of other box office monsters, including The Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, Deadpool, Batman v Superman, Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad, to become the third-highest grossing film in a year (behind Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).
Outside of China and the U.K., the biggest markets for Beauty and the Beast are Brazil ($38.3M), Korea ($35.6M), Australia ($30.8M), Mexico ($29.2M) and Germany ($28.9M).
The picture has one big — and we mean big — market to go: Japan, which delights in Disney fare; you may remember, Frozen was No. 1 for weeks in that country. That is the final market for this box office beast of a film.
SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE
With school holidays in full swing, Sony got a little bit of a kick this weekend from the blue guys … and gal. Smurfs ran in with another $16.4M from its 59 markets which means it had a strong holdover this weekend. It was down overall only about 24%.
The animated film saw an increase from last weekend in France (up 39%) and Germany (up 31%) and slight declines in other territories like Italy (-17%) and Brazil (-36%). The international total is $70.3M.
Combined with its domestic total of $24.7M, the film is now at $95M with major markets of China and South Korea yet to open. The blue man crew will enter the Middle Kingdom next weekend and South Korea comes the weekend after that on April 28.
GHOST IN THE SHELL
The global total for this picture which is struggling to make back its budget and marketing and distribution costs is now $152.1M. It has all but fallen by the wayside in North America and has been looking to foreign to make up the (big) difference. Not going to happen as predictions have this one topping out at around $160M. The Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliance actioner starring Scarlett Johansson has taken in a total of only $115.1M between Paramount and Mister Smith (which also is distributing in some markets). This weekend chased in $7.9M through 54 markets.
Taking a look at the key markets, China’s local cume after two weeks is $28.2M. After…
