UPDATED: Animation domination continues at the global and international box office with Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 leading the pack this frame, and Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 still positively on fire after five sessions. At the same time, we’re seeing encouraging numbers for all major titles in release. And that’s a great thing; yes, there is reason to be positive.
Already this week, Inside Out 2 became Pixar’s highest grossing movie ever globally, and the Despicable Me/Minions franchise became the first animated franchise to reach $5B global. Neither of the current films in release are close to done. To wit: DM4 still has Japan, Korea and Italy on deck.
IO2, meanwhile, is going to Japan on August 1 — and that market may just help propel the Pixar sequel past Frozen 2 to become the biggest animated film of all time worldwide.
Outside the family-centric sphere, we’ve got Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One making noise as it crosses $100M overseas and $200M global. And, new this weekend is Twisters, via Warner Bros, with an early start of $11.5M in 38 markets including Australia, Mexico and Brazil. Uni has this one domestically and starts release on July 19.
Before we dig further into the numbers, here’s a snapshot look at the cumes for DM4 and IO2.
Despicable Me 4 had an $88M weekend in 78 overseas markets, a 38% drop from last frame’s holdovers. The international total is now $226.7M for $437.8M global.
Inside Out 2 did $50.2M in 47 material markets (-38% versus last week), to raise the offshore cume to $777.5M and global to $1,350.1M.
Also, with this weekend’s numbers, Disney has surpassed $2B in global box office for the year to date. Its estimated $2.075B has been fueled by only three wide releases: Inside Out 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and The First Omen.
In new play, WB started rolling out Twisters, launching in 38 markets and grossing $11.5M on 8,266 screens. In like-for-like markets and using today’s exchange rates, the opening weekend results track 33% ahead of Into the Storm, 31% greater than the original Twister and 16% higher than The Fall Guy.
Mexico launched with $3.3M at No. 2 and ahead of key comps including Fall Guy (+99%), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (+35%), Uncharted (+34%) and Into the Storm (+24%).
Australia whipped up $2.5M, also ahead of key comps and including Geostorm (+136%) and Meg 2: The Trench (+14%). Brazil’s $914K launch is on par with Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Geostorm and well above other comps.
Thailand was a No. 1 start with $780K and 70% share of the top five films. Twisters’ results are on par with Into the Storm, 432% over Frozen Empire, 399% higher than Fall Guy, 154% above Uncharted and 28% bigger than Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Next week will see another 38 overseas markets open, including most of Europe and China. Japan and Korea go in August.
Also taking flight, the Apple Original Films produced/Sony distributed Fly Me To the Moon launched its international journey with $9M in 52 markets. That’s on par with the opening of last year’s sleeper hit Where the Crawdads Sing for the same group of markets at current exchange rates. Word of mouth and reviews are strong, teeing up a long run. The next market to release is Japan this week.
Turning back to the holdover hits, DM4 is performing in line with Minions, above Minions 2, DM3 and DM2, at the same point excluding China. The Imax global cume is $18.3M.
It opened in China this weekend with $17.7M, the second biggest launch for the franchise and the biggest opening weekend for a Hollywood animation since 2020. The UK launched with $12.2M at No. 1 and performing over 2x DM, in line with DM2 and Minions: The Rise of Gru, and just off DM3 and Minions. Sunday was impacted by England playing in the Euro Cup final, but there are six weeks of school holidays ahead.
Germany started at No. 1 with $9.3M through Sunday. Including previews. DM4 is the top opener of 2024 and had the second biggest launch of the franchise (just behind Minions). The movie also landed the biggest Hollywood opening day of the year. France debuted with $8.7M from 904 screens at No.1 in the market, performing in line with DM2 and MTROG excluding previews.
In Mexico, the $24.2M running cume means DM4 has surpassed Despicable Me, Zootopia, Sing and Frozen‘s lifetimes.
The Top 5 markets to date are Mexico ($24.2M), Australia ($22.3M), China ($17.7M), Brazil ($12.7M) and UK ($12.2M).
Japan releases this week, followed by Korea on July 24 and Italy on August 21.
Meanwhile, at a touch over $1.35B worldwide, Inside Out 2, is currently the No. 3 animated film of all time. Within the next days, it will overtake The Super Mario Bros Movie ($1.362B) at No. 2, and with Japan still due for release on IO2, it’s looking destined to top Frozen 2 ($1.45B) as the biggest animated movie ever on a global basis.
This weekend, it passed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($1.31B), Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi ($1.334B), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.342B) and Black Panther ($1.35B) to move up to No. 17 on the all-time global chart.
With $777.5M overseas through Sunday, the Kelsey Mann-helmed charmer is now the No. 5 animated title internationally (soon to surpass Super Mario Bros’ $787M).
And, after becoming the biggest movie of all time in Mexico last session, IO2 now has the same bragging rights in Brazil.
Hong Kong opened this session with a $1.9M No. 1 (or $7M including previews). Those previews were the highest sneaks of all time. In Portugal, Inside Out 2 posted the second highest industry opening weekend ever, only behind Avengers: Endgame.
The Top 5 markets to date are Mexico ($94.9M), Brazil ($66M), UK ($57M), Korea ($53.3M) and Italy ($43.3M).
As noted, Par’s A Quiet Place: Day One has topped the $100M international mark as well as crossing $200M globally. With a $10.4M overseas weekend in 67 markets, the offshore cume rises to $104.5M while worldwide reaches $220.7M.
Internationally, the running total is 9% above A Quiet Place Part II. Excluding China it’s 32% above.
The Top 5 to date are China ($17.3M), Mexico ($11.2M), UK ($10.3M), Australia ($6.7M) and France ($5.2M).
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (SNY): $5.5M intl weekend (65 markets); $193.1M intl cume/$378M global
MaXXXine (UNI): $1.17M intl weekend (24 markets); $2.9M intl cume (UPI only)/$14.7M global
The Bikeriders (UNI): $1.14M intl weekend (62 markets); $12.2M intl cume/$32.6M global