Refresh for latest… Disney/Marvel’s Eternals has come in ahead of projections with an opening weekend of $90.7M at the international box office, and $161.7M global when paired with domestic. This gives the Chloé Zhao-directed film bragging rights to the second-biggest worldwide opening for a Hollywood title in 2021. The global debut sets Eternals 26% ahead of Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings and 8% ahead of Black Widow in like-for-like markets. Overseas, that translates to 76% above Shang-Chi and 26% above Black Widow.
As we’ve noted throughout the weekend, Eternals opened No. 1 in all key markets. It has also now scored the biggest launch frame during the pandemic in Italy, Brazil and Hong Kong. Quite significant is that it had the best opening weekend for a non-local film during the pandemic in Korea.
Whereas China is typically a swing market on a Hollywood movie (and while Eternals is not expected to get a date there), this time around Korea was a key element. The market is just emerging into a “living with Covid” strategy and despite encouraging numbers on Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Dune, had been overall soft of late. Eternals, which had a comparatively low Naver score versus other recent Marvel entries, increased nicely throughout the frame, dropping only 16% from Saturday to Sunday to cume $14.4M.
To be sure, Eternals is a splat score-wise in a lot of areas, and conversation around the film is rough. Still, European markets did not see drop-off throughout the weekend and right now there’s less concern about frontloading than coming into the first days of offshore rollout. This doesn’t mean the tide won’t change.
The current Top 5 overseas markets are Korea ($14.4M), UK ($7.1M), France ($6.7M), Mexico ($5.7M) and Australia ($5M).
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