This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.
16.08.2022 - 03:59 / variety.com
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSpace comedy Moon Man held on to the top spot at the mainland China box office for a third weekend. It has now accumulated $363 million.Released on July 29, “Moon Man” earned RMB217 million ($32.4 million) between Friday and Sunday earning some 45% of the nationwide weekend total, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The film’s invulnerability underlines once again how the Chinese exhibition and distribution sector has become focused on major hits and top-heavy.There could scarcely be more powerful demonstration of that than the photographs carried over the weekend by Mainland Chinese of Hong Kong star Louis Koo apparently in tears over the disappointing box office stars for “Warriors of Future,” the sci-fi fantasy that he starred in, financed and produced.
“Warriors” opened in second place on the weekend of Aug. 5, 2022, and over the latest session fell to third place. It earned $12.0 million (compared with an opening shot of $20.8 million.
It now stands on a cumulative total of $52.7 million. The film also played out on Monday as the opening film of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. It will head into local release in Hong Kong from Aug.
25, 2022.Splitting the two holdovers was new release “The Fallen Bridge” from Laurel Films, which earned $18.2 million in second place. The film is a cold case crime story from Li Yu.Two other new releases also joined the box office top five, albeit far behind the top three. “Goodbye Monster” earned $2.9 million while “Bounty Hunter” earned $1.8 million.Artisan Gateway shows that the weekend overall had total revenues of $72.2 million.
This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.
according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Marvel Comics flick, which stars real-life couple Tom Holland and Zendaya, is projected to rake in $6.1 million on this four-day weekend, per Variety.“Bullet Train” is still chugging along — holding onto second place with $1.1 million in sales. It was recently announced that the Brad Pitt picture already has an accompanying line of Funko Pop dolls, which will be available for purchase in January.
J. Kim Murphy Hey, North America, today is supposed to be National Cinema Day — didn’t you get the memo? The domestic box office is looking so slow this Labor Day weekend that a re-release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — a superhero film that first hit theaters almost nine months ago — may make a return to the top of the charts. Though the third Tom Holland-led Spidey film debuted in theaters in December 2021, Sony is releasing the “More Fun Stuff Version” in 3,935 theaters over the holiday weekend, hoping to lure devoted fans back to the big screen with its promise of 11 minutes of unseen footage.
SATURDAY AM UPDATE: “Estimates aren’t worth a whole lot this morning thanks to the brilliant idea of National Cinema Day” cried one industry source to us this morning about the challenges for studio box office analysts to peg exactly what’s going to be No. 1 over the 4-day holiday weekend. Despite all good intentions by the Cinema Foundation to drive business over a slow weekend, taking a page out of the book from what’s been down in Spain to spike admissions, it’s not creating a windfall of cash for the marketplace, but several movies are projected to show a 150%-200% gain in their Saturday box office over Friday thanks to $3 tickets on National Cinema Day today.
box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s top territories are now fully open and operating without significant restrictions on seating capacity. These include the U.K. and Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The smaller number of territories still laboring under restrictions nevertheless include some valuable ones: China, Turkey, Argentina, Hong Kong and Russia.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Will Spider-Man be able to save the box office… again? Yes, you’re reading this in August of 2022. And yes, there’s actually a chance that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will return to the No. 1 spot on domestic box office charts… roughly eight months after the superhero adventure swooped into cinemas and revived the theater industry. Sony is re-releasing the film — which has already grossed an astounding $804 million in North America and $1.9 billion globally — in 3,850+ theaters over Labor Day weekend, this time with a glorious 11 minutes of extra footage. Thank you, Peter Parker! How, pray tell, is it possible that last December’s release “Spider-Man: No Way Home” could end up presiding over domestic box office charts in the final stretch of summer? Well, it’s not that surprising if you consider the reality that studios have all but abandoned the big screen in August after ticket sales rebounded at the start of popcorn season. In the past few weeks, the moviegoing landscape has taken a drastic turn from dreary to downright desolate.
Most of the 21 Broadway productions on the boards last week showed some signs of summer doldrums, with 17 shows reporting drops in box office over the previous week. Still, with The Music Man back on the roster after a week’s hiatus, the overall total box office take of $23,513,592 was up about 6%.
Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media After Warner Bros. executives signed off on the risky decision to bankroll their $90 million look at the life of Elvis Presley with a little-known actor portraying the hip-swinging rocker, producer Gail Berman reached for her phone. She wanted to immortalize the moment for Austin Butler, the man who reportedly beat out the likes of Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller to land the kind of role that can make a career. “I needed to take a photo of all these people sitting around after they made a decision that was going to mark a major change in Austin’s life,” says Berman. “It was wonderful that they saw from his screen test just how good he was, and that they were ready to support him on this journey.”
The MTV Video Music Awards are always a calendar highlight and this year’s ceremony certainly didn’t disappoint.This year’s was led by hosts Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow and kicked off with a trip down memory lane as Fergie made a surprise performance. It ended on a high note too when Taylor Swift announced her new album, with a sprinkling of surprises in between as Johnny Depp showed off a rather different side to himself as he tried a new gig.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend. Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned $13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34% compared with its $19.8 million opening session. Some $1.5 million of the weekend total was scored from the film’s outing on Imax screens. After ten days on release “Yang Jian” has a cumulative total of $43.7 million (RMB297 million). Of that, its Imax total is now $4 million.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Intra-Korean espionage actioner “Hunt” claimed a third weekend as the top film at the South Korea box office, while “Bullet Train” managed only a fourth-place opening. “Hunt,” directed by and starring “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, earned a lowly $2.91 million in its third weekend of release. The figure was a 48% weekend-on-weekend decline and saw the film’s market share decline to 33%, down from 47% the previous weekend. “Hunt” now has a cumulative of $28.7 million, making it the fifth-highest grossing film of the year to date and the third biggest Korean title.
A glum weekend box office overall (one of the worst of the year) wasn’t so awful for specialty, relatively speaking, with Breaking passing $1M on 900 screens and Spanish-language The Good Boss at $27K on 15. Both are a far cry from pre-pandemic numbers but did hit the new normal for limited releases – reaching at least $1 million on 500 to 1,000 screens, and keeping the per theater average above three digits.
J. Kim Murphy In a summer that’s often seen only one new wide release in a weekend, a whopping three new films hit theaters on Friday: Sony’s horror-thriller “The Invitation,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and bank heist movie “Breaking,” starring John Boyega. However, none of them seem to be making much of an impact, as the total box office projects a sum in the $50 million to $60 million range. That wouldn’t just be the worst weekend of the summer, but also the worst since February. “The Invitation” is tracking ahead of the other two, as it looks to claim the weekend’s top spot with a meagre $6 million to $7 million gross from 3,114 locations in its opening. Critics didn’t really care for the movie — it landed a 40% approval rating from review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes — and audiences were perhaps more unenthused. The film holds a “C” grade from research firm Cinema Score, indicating a rather snoozy reception from general consumers.
Wise men say only fools predict that adult films don’t work at the pandemic box office, however, older moviegoers kept falling in love with Warner Bros.’ Elvis this summer to the point where it’s now director Baz Luhrmann’s highest grossing movie ever of his career in U.S./Canada with $144.851M, beating the original run of his 2013 title, The Great Gatsby, which made $144.84M.
With no new wide Hollywood tentpole releases until October, we’re in a period of holdovers, and local titles excelling in their home markets (and beyond), while Top Gun: Maverick continues to soar and there’s a will it or won’t it question mark over Jurassic World Dominion‘s shot at getting to $1B global.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” opened in third place.“New Gods: Yang Jian” earned 19.8 million (RMB134 million) on its debut between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It places ahead of previous winner “Moon Man” which slipped from first to second place with a $17.8 million (RMB121 million) fourth weekend.
Continuing its hypersonic run, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick has, in its 13th weekend of release, crossed the $1.4B mark worldwide, lifting the cume to a touch over $1.403B through today.
Lionsgate thriller Fall will make an estimated $2.5+ million this weekend at 1,548 locations for a PSA of about $1,618. The audience (54% male and 61% over 25, according to PostTrak) was broader than it might have been after a company founded by director Scott Mann swapped dozens of f-words, moving Fall from an R to a PG-13 rating.
EXCLUSIVE: With today’s business included, Universal Pictures is crossing the $3B mark at the global box office for 2022 so far, becoming the first studio to reach the milestone since 2019. The grosses broken out to date are $1.74B at the international box office and $1.281B domestically. This is the eighth time Uni has topped $3B worldwide.
With no new wide releases cracking the top 5, Sony/Columbia’s “Bullet Train” will hold on to the No. 1 spot with a second weekend total of just $13.4 million, a 56% drop from its $30 million opening. With a 10-day total of $54.4 million, the action comedy starring Brad Pitt will likely need overseas revenue to post a theatrical profit against its reported $90 million production budget.