‘Despicable Me 3’ Gru-vier With $99M Weekend; $160M Overseas Through Wednesday – International Box Office

UPDATE, THURSDAY AM: When the dust settled following the July 4 holiday, Illumination/Universal’s leader, Despicable Me 3, ticked a touch higher at the international box office — to $98.8M through the weekend in 52 markets. Adding in Monday through Wednesday figures, the overseas gross is $159.6M for $266.6M worldwide. Further Uni actuals have been updated below.

UPDATE, TUESDAY AM writethru with actuals: Because of the July 4 holiday in the U.S., some actuals reporting is delayed. However, across the films that have been updated, there were increases for several of the major titles filing through offshore turnstiles. Illumination/Universal’s weekend leader, Despicable Me 3, snatched the top spot at the international box office with a better-than-estimated $98.1M through Sunday from 52 markets (including previews). That’s up $2.5M from the Sunday figure and lifts the offshore cume to $119.5M after early rollout began in six markets two weeks back.

Combined with domestic, the global total for the weekend is $191.9M. Including Monday’s North American estimate, DM3 has crossed $200M worldwide with a significant handful of majors still ahead.

Gru and his long-lost twin brother Dru made off with No. 1s in 44 out of 46 new opening plays at the weekend, and handily topped the 2nd frame of last week’s leader, Transformers: The Last Knight. That film saw a 65% drop for a slightly higher than projected $69.8M weekend in 44 hubs. By comparison, Transformers: Age Of Extinction dipped a little over 52% from its opening in 2014 to its sophomore session. The current international cume on Michael Bay’s Paramount action fivequel is $329.6M.

Optimus Prime crossed $200M in China on Monday, per local reporting. That’s his lead market by far, although as we saw last week, T5 will not touch the record heights of its predecessor there with word of mouth dinging the robots’ armor and DM3 on its way into the Middle Kingdom on Friday. Last Knight did score No. 1s in the three new opening destinations of France, India and Belgium this frame. Among majors yet to come are Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Spain.

Turning back to DM3, the Kyle Balda/Pierre Coffin-helmed pic (reported production cost: high $70Ms) set new records in several markets for the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film; top Illumination bows of all time; and best of the franchise.

The lead hub to start is the UK with $14.7M at No. 1 including a record-setting Saturday for an animated title. Overall, DM3 is running well ahead of its brethren, all except Minions which, in like-for-like markets and at today’s exchange rates was at $140M at this point in release. DM2 was at $99M vs DM3’s $119.5M. The UK and China have typically led markets for the franchise. This one lands in the latter on July 7 with a fair bit of runway ahead. (NB: Uni will provide updated full-market breakdowns on Wednesday.)

Also notable this weekend, Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman powered past the $700M worldwide box office threshold with a bigger $709.6M than was estimated Sunday. The Amazon warrior held well in her 5th frame, and has lassoed $363.4M overseas with Japan still on deck. Brazil has continued to be a strength for Diana Prince.

Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales also crossed $700M globally, aided by a strong two-day debut in Japan which is typically a huge market for the series. Through July 2, the film reeled in $710.6M worldwide, including $545M international — up from the Sunday call. That lifts the Pirates franchise to over $4.4B worldwide.

In debuts, Sony’s Stateside breakout Baby Driver sped off to a $6.8M start internationally, with the UK the only major play. The Edgar Wright-helmed pic will see a long summer rollout.

Elsewhere, Sony has another new kid in town beginning Wednesday this week as Spider-Man: Homecoming starts day-and-date release in North America and offshore plays including the UK, Korea, Russia and Brazil. Hot on the webslinger’s heels, Fox’s War For The Planet Of The Apes starts swinging July 11. Both have been very well-reviewed thus far and will mark some big territory over the first half of the month.

Neither of those is set to hit China imminently where Transformers, as noted, will slow further this week ahead of DM3’s entrance. The first movie in that franchise never released there, but the Middle Kingdom was No. 2 behind the UK on both DM2 and Minions. Execs agree that it’s still unclear if there is a full black-out period ahead there — DM3 is the last Hollywood movie currently dated. This frame saw two Chinese movies enter the Top 10 international (Reset and Wished — see more in the Local-Language section below) while there are any number of new homegrown titles gearing up for release.

Breakdowns have been updated below for the films that have reported (Baby Driver is notably among the non-updated pics).

NEW
BABY DRIVER

Edgar Wright’s getaway actioner from Sony-TriStar/Working Title/Media Rights Capital raced off the block with $6.8M in 16 total offshore markets this frame. Of those, Wright’s home turf UK was the top start at $4.6M on 680 screens and off the back of strong local reviews.

The cast and director had their international premiere in Leicester Square with a 3-day junket last week, bookended by stops in Paris and Madrid. Wright has been active on Twitter all week and was given high praise by fan/director Guillermo del Toro in a 13-strong tweet endorsement. The UK start is 32% bigger than Now You See Me, which Sony is using as a main comp.

Over the same territories that opened this frame, including Holland, the launch is 13% ahead of Now You See Me.

Sony showed extended footage of the Ansel Elgort-starrer to European exhibitors at CineEurope in Barcelona last month where excitement was palpable. It had previously premiered the film at SXSW where it won the Audience Award.

Baby Driver has a long summer rollout ahead of it with Spain opening this coming weekend, followed by Australia, France, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Russia.

THE HOUSE

The New Line/Village Roadshow/Warner Bros comedy opened in 20 international markets this weekend, generating an estimated $2.7M from 1,237 screens. While the Amy Poehler/Will Ferrell-starrer had folks laughing at the visual gags in Barcelona recently, the movie failed to generate bank domestically and did not break out in its overseas launch. Australia was the top market at $1.2M on 225 screens. WB has it on par with Ferrell’s Get Hard there. Comping to Poehler’s Sisters in the UK, The House is apace at $611K on 418. In the UAE, the Andrew Jay Cohen-helmed pic is at $316K on 45 to double Sisters’ bow and is in line with Ferrell’s The Other Guys. Rollout continues through the summer.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
DESPICABLE ME 3

Illumination/Universal’s Despicable Me 3 snatched the top spot for the weekend with $98.1M from 52 markets. That lifts the offshore cume to $119.5M with numbers rolled in from the earlier soft international launch. Combined with domestic, the global total through Sunday is $191.9M. Significant markets like China, France and Germany are still on deck.

DM3 is running well ahead of the previous installments, but 15% lower than Minions at the same point of release in like-for-like markets and at today’s exchange rates. While spinoff Minions is a fair comp, it’s not apples-to-apples given the storyline focus for the DMs is on Steve Carell’s Gru; these films also play older than Minions, an out-and-out phenomenon two years ago whose own sequel is due in 2020.

Drilling down into this weekend’s DM3 performance, it was No. 1 in 44 of 46 new plays. In Australia’s 3rd weekend, it recaptured the top spot from Transformers 5. The launch was the biggest animated movie opening weekend of all time in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Venezuela and the Middle East. In addition, Estonia’s opening of $294K and Latvia’s opening of $247K are the biggest opening weekends for all films ever.

DM3 also scored the biggest opening weekend for Illumination in the above markets as well as Finland, Peru, Poland, Sweden, the UAE and Uruguay. Of the franchise films, including Minions, this one was tops in the above along with Denmark, India and Israel.

In Sunday estimates, the UK, $14.7M was worth 56% market share — the Saturday was the biggest opening Saturday ever for an animated film. Also No. 1 in Mexico with 74% market share, the weekend estimate is $13.5M for the 2nd biggest opening weekend for an animated film, behind Minions. Brazil bowed at No. 1 with $7.5M and 63% market share. Russia opened No. 1 with $9.2M and 68% market share. Spain started strong at No. 1 with $5.5M and 58% market share — the 2nd best Illumination launch ever. At $4.4M, DM3 in Argentina is the market’s 3rd biggest opening of all films, behind only Fast & Furious 7 and 8.

The UK and China have typically led markets for the franchise, although the initial DM movie did not release in the latter. This one lands there on July 7 with a fair bit of runway ahead of it as the last Hollywood movie that’s thus far been dated during what is typically a blackout period.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

Falling 65% from its international launch last weekend, Paramount’s 5th movie in the bots franchise grossed $69.8M this session. That’s in 44 markets with three new openings. The offshore cume is now $329.6M. France ($5.5M/815 dates), India ($3.4M/1,129 dates) and Belgium ($761K/156 dates) were all new No. 1s.

In holds, China led at $29.5M from 7,000 locations over the weekend. That lifted the estimated total there to $193.5M after 10 days. The film dropped 76% in the Middle Kingdom (it had already seen a bigger than expected Saturday to Sunday drop last session and has suffered poor word of mouth). While unofficial, estimates out of China through Monday have it crossing $200M. Still, it will not reach the hoped for heights of its predecessor, Age Of Extinction, which set a new record there in 2014. That film played into the (unofficial) July blackout and became the biggest import ever (at the time) after 12 days of release. It’s not clear if the temporary moratorium on outside pics is being fully enforced by the PROC this year. Currently Despicable Me 3 is the last Hollywood film slated for a while.

Elsewhere, the best hold was in Germany which added $3.6M for a local cume of $9.7M. In Korea, Bumblebee got stung by local pic Anarchist From Colony to land at No. 2 for the sophomore session with $3M/$17.6M cume (2nd best overseas market). Russia added $2.1M for $13.1M to date and the UK toyed with another $2.1M for a $10.2M cume.

In South East Asia, Malaysia leads with $7.2M to date. Taiwan is at $5.8M. There are still major markets to release including Brazil and Mexico in two weeks and Japan and Spain in early August.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

In their 6th session, the Pirates added the final market, Japan, with a strong $9.2M two-day opening. That’s the 6th best start for a Disney title and the 2nd biggest 2017 bow for a western title. In total this frame saw Jack Sparrow haul another $18.1M aboard for an overseas total of $545M and $710.6M in global booty. There were increases at offshore turnstiles in such markets as Belgium (+24%), Switzerland (+23%), Austria (+23%), Sweden (+22%) and France (+8%) while Turkey (-3%) Australia (-28%) and Spain (-30%) saw slight drops. China has topped out at $172.3M to lead, followed by Russia with $40M, Germany at $27.6M, France at $24.9M and the UK at $24.7M.

POTC5 is The Walt Disney Studios’ 3rd release of 2017 to reach the $700M global milestone and the 4th Pirates film to do so.

WONDER WOMAN

Defending the globe for a 5th frame, Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman dropped 28% from last weekend to deliver $15.5M in 64 markets. That lifts the international box office total to $363.4M and helps Diana Prince across the $700M worldwide mark with $709.6M to date.

Holds were tight in Brazil (-31%/$29.9M cume), France (+2%/$13.2M cume), Australia (-16%/$19.8M cume) and Germany (-4%$7M cume). The UK’s 5th session was worth $1.2M for $26.3M thus far.

The lead market is China at $88.5M, followed by Brazil, the UK, Mexico ($22M) and Australia. In the Philippines, the Amazon warrior’s $10.5M is the biggest score for a WB movie ever. Japan is last to bow on August 25.

THE MUMMY

Universal’s The Mummy crossed $300M on Tuesday at the international box office. Over the weekend, it added $12.1M in 68 markets. The overseas cume is $300.5M through Tuesday for a global total of $376.6M. The overall drop from last weekend was 32% with France was the top weekend hold with $8.1M to date. China’s 4th session lifted the Tom Cruise-starrer to $91M in the market as play wraps. Behind China in the Top 5 are Korea ($27.5M), Russia ($16.4M), Brazil ($13.5M) and Mexico ($12.7M). Japan unwraps on July 28.

BAYWATCH

Offshore play on Paramount’s Baywatch now accounts for over 62% of the total as it nears $100M overseas. The weekend was worth a higher than estimated $8.5M for a $94.9M cume to date. The holds were led by France with $2.1M at 555 locations and a $5.8M cume (the market also saw reduced-price ticket scheme Fête du Cinéma run last Sunday through Wed). Germany, where original Baywatch star David Hasselhoff is a household name, has grossed $15M after five weekends. And, Mexico is now at $7.1M.

CARS 3

In its 3rd weekend, Disney/Pixar’s latest run around the track added $5.3M in 26 markets. The offshore cume is $53.5M for a global total of $174.1M so far. This is off the back of just three majors outside North America with Mexico in pole position at $14.2M, followed by Russia at $9.8M. Australia had a great hold, dipping 19% with more kids out of school now and $4M to date. The next big openings for Lightning McQueen are the July 14 frame with Brazil, Korea, Spain, the UK and Japan greasing the wheels.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (FOX): $2.1M intl weekend (10 markets); $13M intl cume
Beauty And The Beast (DIS): $1M intl weekend (6 markets); $755.8M intl cume of which $108.5M is from Japan
Everything, Everything (WB): $2M intl weekend (33 markets); $12.2M intl cume
Alien: Covenant (FOX): $832K intl weekend (9 markets); $157.8M intl cume
*The Beguiled (UNI): $421K intl weekend (3 markets); 2nd biggest start for a Sofia Coppola movie in Germany at $307K on 116 screens; $504K intl cume through Tuesday
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (FOX): $358K intl weekend (5 markets); $7.4M intl cume
* Denotes new

LOCAL-LANGUAGE
Three Asian films landed in the Top 10 internationally this weekend.

In China, Reset opened at No. 2 behind Transformers with $13.7M. Exec produced by Jackie Chan, the sci-fi action pic sees a woman team up with the inventor of a time machine to attempt to rescue her kidnapped son. Mi Yang stars. Yoon Hong-Seung directs.

In Korea, Lee Joon-ik’s Anarchist From Colony stars Lee Je-hoon and grossed $6.7M. The period biopic takes place during Korea’s time under Japanese rule. It’s centered on Park Yeol, founder of the Heukdohwe anarchist group during the Colonial Era, which sought to assassinate Japan’s Crown Prince.

Back in China, Wished, from Beijing-based Chinese-American helmer Dayyan Eng (aka Wu Shixian), grossed $5M in in 3rd place. The movie employed a mix of proven Middle Kingdom and international talent to give home auds a Chinese movie with a Hollywood sheen. It’s a comedy backed in part by Edko Films (Monster Hunt) and Union Films (The Mermaid). Talent includes screenwriter Justin Malen (Office Christmas Party, Bastards, Baywatch) and Luc Besson’s frequent cinematographer, Thierry Arbogast (Lucy). The story centers on a 30-something career guy who meets a magical celestial being at a point when he is disillusioned with his life. She starts making all his wishes come true — including those from childhood. Yan Ni stars with K-pop celeb Victoria Song and comedian Pan Binlong. There are cameos from some of China’s best-known actors including Warcraft and Go Away Mr Tumor‘s Daniel Wu.

(Also, in Korea Okja debuted on 103 screens this weekend, despite blowback from the local exhibition community over the Netflix title also going to streaming. It grossed $739K at No. 4.)