Imax’s Q1 Box Office Record Pushes Revenue to $86.9 Million, Beating Wall Street Projections

While it might seem that Fast X has run out of gas in the states, it’s totally turbo boasted overseas as the tenth installment in the Universal franchise is eyeing a an offshore start of $235M to 60M+ domestic. That will get Fast X to $295M worldwide, making it the third highest global start for a Fast & Furious movie after Fate of the Furious ($541.9M) and Furious 7 ($397.6M).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3” enjoyed a second weekend on top of the mainland China box office, as all top five placed films remained unchanged and audiences await “Fast & Furious 10.” “Guardians Vol 3” earned $19.0 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a decent week-on-week hold, representing a drop of only 32% from its debut weekend, following a solid but unspectacular start. And it gives the film a total of $58.7 million after ten days in mainland Chinese theaters. Imax screens accounted for $3 million of the film’s weekend score in China and lifted the film’s Imax total in China to $10.4 million, which Imax calculates as 18% of its China total.

Refresh for latest…: After crossing the $300M mark globally through Monday last week, Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has thrust to another milestone. The James Gunn-directed threequel handily crossed the half a billion mark in the sophomore frame and now sits at an estimated $528.8M global through Sunday. Of that, $213.2M is from domestic and $315.6M at the international box office. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ was victorious again at the domestic box office, adding $60.5 million in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales dropped by 49% from its debut, marking an impressive hold… at least for a superhero movie. Across more than 30 Marvel entries, only “Black Panther” (45%) and “Thor” (47%) have had stronger second weekend holds. By comparison, recent Marvel movies such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” declined by nearly 70% in their sophomore outings. Those are brutal falls, even for movies that debuted to more than $100 million. Those entries were reminders that Marvel may remain critic-proof in terms of opening weekends, but they’re no longer immune to quickly falling back down to Earth.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Box office headlines have lately been dominated by Hollywood movies like Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has become the first movie of the year to hit $1 billion, and Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.” But a closer look at the global box office recovery indicates that Tinseltown does not have the field to itself. In fact, international films and markets — not the United States — are driving the current global box office recovery. In some territories, local-language titles are even dominant over Hollywood releases. And the overall scale of overseas ticket sales now dwarfs that of North America by more than two to one.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Moms, it’s time to swap the paperback copy of “Normal People” for a movie ticket. “Book Club: The Next Chapter” opens on the big screen this weekend, and the sequel to 2018’s sleeper-hit septuagenarian comedy is expected to earn $7 million to $10 million from 3,507 North American theaters in its debut. Focus Features is hoping the film, which reunites the core group of readers in Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, will bring out the same crowd of older females that powered the first “Book Club” to $68 million domestically and $104 million globally. The original, which was released by Paramount, debuted to $13.5 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $28 million of gross box office on its opening weekend in mainland China. That was a solid result in present circumstances, rather than an overwhelming one. The film easily displaced two of the weaker Chinese titles that had been released a week earlier to take advantage of the five-day May Day holiday season. “Born to Fly,” a patriotic action adventure about Chinese test pilots, nose-dived by 75% as it fell from a $40 million first place debut to a $11.2 million third-placed second flap. Its cumulative after two weekends is $77.3 million, according to weekend data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” gave the South Korean box office its biggest weekend of the year, with a $10.3 million start. The film played on more than 1,800 screens and enjoyed a 46% share of the overall market between Friday and Sunday, according to data supplied by Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. After a year of struggle for the theatrical business in Korea, the opening by “Guardians” was twice that of “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and nearly four times bigger than the next biggest individual title debut of 2023 (“The First Slam Dunk” in the first week of January scored $2.61 million). Over its opening five days, “Guardians” managed $13.2 million, making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year at the end of its first weekend.

Indian films are a box office mainstay and one, Jodi, from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, hit big this weekend Stateside, grossing $734,000 on just 125 screens. In April, the film set a record as the most viewed Punjabi trailer in 24 hours (over 12 million views on YouTube).

last month’s momentum going with strong audience reception that should allow James Gunn’s final MCU film to leg out in theaters. With $38.9 million grossed from 4,405 locations on Saturday, “Guardians Vol. 3” beat industry projections and may do so again on Sunday, possibly allowing it to get to a final weekend total closer to $120 million when actual totals are reported on Monday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the conclusion to Marvel’s trilogy about an intergalactic crew of misfits, kicked off with $114 million in its domestic box office debut. Those ticket sales rank as the second-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $146 million. Despite the towering figure, the film ever-so-slightly missed expectations of $120 million and arrived considerably behind its predecessor, 2017’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” with $146 million. It’s a jump on the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which introduced the world to Chris Pratt’s Star Lord and his friends and opened to $94 million in 2014.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Wahoo! “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” crossed $500 million at the domestic box office, one of only 19 films to ever surpass that benchmark. In its fifth weekend of release, the movie collected a huge $18.5 million from 3,909 North American theaters and landed in second place behind Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($116 million). At this point, the animated video game adaptation — from Universal, Illumination and Nintendo — is the highest grossing movie of the year in North America with $518 million and globally with $1.15 billion. And it’s the first movie from Illumination, the company behind “Despicable Me” and “Sing,” to hit the $500 million mark at the domestic box office. Also this weekend, “Mario” surpassed “Toy Story 4” ($1.07 billion) to become the fifth-biggest animated movie of all time.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ruled the U.K. and Ireland box office collecting £3.06 million ($3.8 million) in its fourth weekend for a total of £45.7 million, per numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, Studiocanal’s “Evil Dead Rise” earned £1.05 million in second place for a total of £3.3 million. There were a couple of strong debuts in the top five. eOne’s “The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry” bowed in third place with £784,698, while DG Tech’s Tamil-language magnum opus “Ponniyin Selvan: 2,” also released in the Telugu and Hindi languages, debuted in fourth position with £618,244. Rounding off the top five, in its fifth weekend, was eOne’s “Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” with £575,796.

Global audiences have been gaga for Baba Yaga with Lionsgate/Thunder Road Films/87 Eleven’s John Wick: Chapter 4 now having passed the $400M mark worldwide.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Born to Fly,” an action movie about the prowess of the Chinese air force and the bravery of its aviators, topped the China box office chart over a weekend that led into the nearly week-long May Day holiday. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway shows the film earned $44 million (RMB279 million) between Friday and Sunday. The weekend as a whole brought in $121 million of turnstile revenue, the fourth highest weekend of the year and weaker only than the three “revenge spending” weekends that drove the Chinese New Year period in January and early February.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and a local sports movie “Dream” gave the South Korean box office some bounce on their first weekend on release. Opening in Korea on Wednesday, some three weeks after the beginning of its international and North American campaigns, “Super Mario” earned $4.67 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The film has a cumulative of $5.76 million over its opening five days, plus previews. The film’s weekend numbers are the second highest opening tally recorded by any film this year in Korea. And its weekend score represented a comfortable 40% market share.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s another weekend of box office domination for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which collected a towering $40 million in its fourth frame. Those ticket sales, down just 33% from the weekend prior, were easily enough to rule over the weekend’s newcomers, including literary adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” Finnish war drama “Sisu” and biopic “Big George Foreman.” After four weeks on the big screen, “Mario” has grossed $490 million in North America and $532 million internationally to loom even larger as the highest-grossing film of 2023. It’s also the first movie of the year to cross $1 billion globally, a distinction held by only five pandemic-era blockbusters.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo. The movie based on the popular Nintendo game has earned more than $458 million in the US since opening on April 5 — and is projected to hit the $1 billion global milestone on Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has officially done what no other animated movie since the pandemic began has been able to do: reach the $1 billion mark at the global box office. The Nintendo adaptation has hit the mark at the start of its fourth weekend in theaters as it adds an estimated $37.5 million from North American theaters along with an estimated $69 million from overseas.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The highly-anticipated Japanese animated feature film “The First Slam Dunk” dominated the mainland China cinema box office in its opening weekend. It broke multiple records as it did so. The film scored $38.5 million (RMB266 million) over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. However, it opened on Thursday, a day earlier than is the norm in China, and has accumulated $55.2 million over the opening four-day frame. The film is based on IP that is well-known to a generation of comic book fans and TV audiences in China (early middle-aged men were reported to have been particularly interested) and has already proved a hit in other parts of Asia. (Comscore estimates that the film has grossed $211 million worldwide.)