Prabhas’ ‘Salaar,’ Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dunki’ in the Charts as ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Wonka’ Lead International Pre-Christmas Box Office

Gladiators was one of the biggest sports entertainment programmes of the 1990s, and this weekend it returns to screens in its brand-new home on the BBC. Hosted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh, the show will see a new generation of superhuman Gladiators competing against a brave set of contenders.

Prime Video is to change its content strategy in Southeast Asia from a model based on original productions to one focused instead on licensing. As a result it has cut some jobs in the region. The move follows last week’s announcement of a restructuring and several hundred job cuts in North America at Prime Video and the Amazon-owned MGM. “Today we have made the decision to discontinue some programs and initiatives, and rebalance our international organization to focus on the countries and regions driving the most growth for our service.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Prime Video Southeast Asia is cutting its originals team in Singapore and moving to a “leaner operating model,” as part of the globe wave of redundancies announced earlier this week.

An eye-opening SIM deal has dropped that'll give users a large chunk of monthly data to use for just £9.99 a month, and its price isn't the only incentive for mobile shoppers. The Lyca Mobile network deal isn't tied into a contract, so you'll be able to leave any time you like.

Globally, including most everywhere overseas, 2023 box office was led by a mix of Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer, curious bedfellows who nevertheless proved that cultural phenomena can come in different forms and set turnstiles spinning.

Audiences didn’t have a lot of new choices, nor a mega late-December blockbuster to ring in the first weekend of the new year at the movies, but the studio titles on offer are still drawing crowds and seeing strong holds, particularly with ongoing holidays in many international box office markets. Milestones are also being set as Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka topped $300M overseas while Disney’s Wish crossed $200M worldwide and AMC touted a new benchmark for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fish out of water comedy film “Jonny Keep Walking” climbed to the top of the mainland China box office in its second weekend on release. Previous winner, “Shining for One Thing” dimmed quickly and tumbled to fifth place. The first weekend of the new year and following a welter of Christmas-New Year releases, the latest weekend represented a reordering of holdover titles, rather than a session with an injection of significant fresh movies. “Jonny,” in which a man from the countryside struggles to hold down a corporate job in a big city, earned $22.4 million (RMB159 million) from Friday to Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney animation film, “Wish” topped the South Korean box office on its opening weekend. It toppled local epic “Noryang: Deadly Sea,” which had dominated over Christmas and New Year. “Wish,” which has slowly been rolling out worldwide since a late November start in North America, made a respectable $3.29 million debut between Friday and Sunday according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). After five days on release in Korea, it has garnered $4.57 million. “Noryang,” which released on Dec.

Global box office is estimated to have reached $33.9B for 2023, a 30.5% gain on 2022, according to Gower Street Analytics. While this represents continuing worldwide recovery, the figure remains 15% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019). Gower Street also recently estimated that, due in part to this year’s strike-impacted release calendar, 2024 is projected to drop to $31.5 billion, which, given today’s revised estimate for last year, would come in at 7% below 2023. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong saw “A Guilty Conscience” become the highest-grossing film of all time at its local box office. But the wider cinema market in Hong Kong remained stuck far below pre-pandemic levels. Data from Hong Kong Box Office Limited, a joint venture between Motion Picture Industry Association (MPIA) and the Hong Kong Theatres Association, showed annual cinema revenue of HK$1.43 billion ($184 million) in 2023. That was a 25% improvement on 2022, when the industry was battered by on-off closures due to government COVID-control measures, and managed only HK$1.14 billion ($146 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese-produced movies took all of the top ten chart places at the China box office as theatrical revenues in 2023 rebounded strongly. Gross revenues reached an annual total of RMB54.9 billion or $7.73 billion. That was an 83% improvement on the previous year, according to data from China Film Administration, but still 14.5% adrift of 2019, the last pre-COVID year, when grosses hit RMB64.3 billion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A strong December for local films helped make up for an otherwise miserable 2023 at the South Korean box office – previously the fifth largest cinema territory worldwide. And while theatrical markets in other major territories have recovered to reach at or near pre-pandemic levels, Korea finished 44% below 2019. Data from the Korean Film Council’s Kobis tracking service showed annual gross revenues of KRW1.261 trillion ($964 million at Jan 2024 rates of exchange) in 2023. That represented a gain of 9% on 2022, but it was far below the KRW1.91 trillion ($1.46 billion) recorded in 2019, the last pre-COVID year. The bleak trend was mirrored in terms of attendance or ticket sales, which remains the country’s preferred performance measure.

Korean historical action drama 12.12: The Day has grossed $90.5M and sailed past the 12 million admissions mark at the Korean box office over the Christmas holiday period to become the highest grossing film of 2023. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Wonka,” a musical fantasy that has been the biggest hit of the holiday season, topped the box office on New Year’s Eve, closing 2023 on a sweet note. The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as a more youthful Willy Wonka, grossed $22.7 million for the weekend and a projected $29.5 million for the four-day holiday. That brings the domestic gross to $140.2 million, a strong result for the $125 million production.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-list actor Ayushmann Khurrana scored another major hit in 2023 with comedy sequel “Dream Girl 2.” But he is still happy to have achieved what he describes as “validation.” The film was one of several medium budget Hindi-language films that became box office successes, including “OMG 2,” “Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway,” “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke,” “Satyaprem Ki Katha” and “12th Fail.” These effectively debunked the notion that only big budget spectacles like “Pathaan” or “Jawan” would work at the post-pandemic Bollywood box office, which had a poor 2022. “There was a conspiracy theory, maybe a year back, that Indian audiences [were] only looking for spectacles or larger-than-life films, but this year, a lot of films, which not really big budget but mid budget, did really well,” Khurrana told Variety.

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon has crossed the $200M mark globally, getting to the milestone with Tuesday’s numbers included. The worldwide tally for the biographical epic is $200.7M, of which $141.1M is from the international box office. Through yesterday, the domestic cume is $59.6M.

Two Indian films Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire and Dunki buoyed the North American box office on a relatively quiet holiday weekend as Searchlight Pictures’ All Of Us Strangers had a solid per-screen openings and Poor Things a nice expansion.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” opened to $80 million at the international box office, which isn’t all that super considering those ticket sales are on par with eventual big-budget superhero disappointments like “The Flash,” “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” The comic book sequel, starring Jason Momoa as the king of Atlantis and directed by James Wan, has generated $120 million globally to start, including a weak $40 million in North America. The Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Prabhas, one of the biggest stars of Indian cinema, is back in action again this weekend in Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire. Already, the film is proving a hit with audiences at home and abroad, grossing an estimated 144 crore ($17.3M) worldwide on opening day.

Warner Bros/DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom began offshore rollout on Wednesday, and with numbers through Friday included has grossed $40.9M in 73 international box office markets. This portends a full overseas opening in the $70M range. With domestic’s three- and four-day, the global start will top $100M.