International box office was led again by China this weekend with local titles A Little Red Flower and Shock Wave 2 at the top of the charts, and Disney/Pixar’s Soul continuing its jazzy run there. The Pete Docter-directed original is soon to become Pixar’s No. 3 highest-grossing title ever in the market. Other weekend highlights include Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 1984 nearing the $100M overseas mark as Russia prepares for its date with Diana Prince, and the ongoing strength of family offerings, all things considered.
The post New Year’s frame overall was quiet with no new major releases and as extended Covid measures were put in place in certain areas. Europe’s cinemas are still closed for the foreseeable future, and even Spain — the only Euro major that’s been operating of late — was hit by a freak snowstorm this weekend which impacted moviegoing. In Japan, a “soft” state of emergency was declared for Tokyo and surrounding districts this week, reducing operating hours for a one-month period. We understand, however, that Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train was dethroned from its No. 1 spot in Japan for the first time in 12 weeks on Saturday as Warner Bros’ Gintama The Final, an anime adaptation of the sci-fi manga series, took over the slot (we are awaiting official figures).
Turning back to China, the local holiday holdovers, A Little Red Flower and Shock Wave 2, have cumed $160M and $149M, respectively (the latter with $17.2M from IMAX). Soul has now grossed $36M in the Middle Kingdom, dropping just 54% in its third frame with $6.4M this session. It will pass Finding Dory ($38.4M) in the next days to take over the No. 3 spot for Pixar in China, behind Coco and Incredibles 2. In total, Soul added $8.9M from 11 material markets this session, taking the offshore cume to $47.3M. The movie, which is playing on Disney+ in the areas where the service is available, is enjoying a solid theatrical run in Asia and the Middle East with Saudi Arabia (+22%) and UAE (+11%) both up this weekend and Taiwan seeing just a 22% dip.
The Top 5 behind China is rounded out by Taiwan ($3.4M), Saudi Arabia ($3.1M), Ukraine ($1.1M) and Singapore ($1M). The next key openings are due on January 20 and 21 in Korea and Russia.
Elsewhere, Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 1984 picked up another $4.7M from 40 overseas markets, lifting the international running cume to $98.8M for a global total of $131.4M. IMAX’s portion of the offshore total is $8.8M or roughly 9% of the whole.
Russia, which officially opens WW84 on January 14, had over $600K in previews this week with $400K from IMAX. Elsewhere, Brazil saw a 52% increase thanks to movie theaters in Sao Paulo reopening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Australia is now the No. 3 market for the movie, behind the U.S. and China, with $14.5M.
DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Croods: A New Age hit $91M over the weekend internationally, coming off a solid 34% drop from last session. The full weekend was good for $5.1M in 17 markets and the global tally is now $127.8M. Russia and Australia have each grossed north of $10M with strong holds throughout the holiday. However, future release dates have been pushed back to the Easter corridor given market conditions in Europe and elsewhere.
This week, Tencent and Sony’s animated Wish Dragon heads to China along with local crime thriller The Soul.