Warner Bros’ Birds Of Prey took flight across 51 overseas markets on Wednesday and Thursday, grossing $7.8M at the international box office through its first two days. The Cathy Yan-directed DC spinoff has opened to No. 1 in its major plays, save Korea and Italy where local titles are dominating. Ahead of the weekend, the industry was seeing a $60M-$70M offshore launch frame; the film is likely to come in at the lower end of that range.
In comparable markets and at today’s rates, Suicide Squad bowed to $135.1M, but SS opened in summer and carried a PG-13 rating. Warners is also using R-rated comps for Birds Of Prey like Mad Max: Fury Road which opened to $54M in like-for-likes. Overseas reactions have been similar to domestic on BOP and as the film skews to young women, pick-up is likely over the weekend.
DC titles overseas lean heavily into the European majors and Latin America with the UK, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Russia repping the Top 5 on Suicide Squad. As expected this weekend, results are being impacted in Asia due to concern over the coronavirus epidemic with some cinemas shuttering out of precaution. Overall moviegoing is down.
The strongest start for Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn so far is Russia, at $784K from 2,936 screens. That’s above Mad Max: Fury Road (+16%) and Terminator: Dark Fate (+4%) while on par with Wonder Woman. Australia also beat R-rated comps at $437K from 528. Brazil landed $578K on Thursday from 1,506. And, Taiwan opened to $405K yesterday on 246 screens. Germany ($349K/714 screens) and Italy ($175K/520) round out the Thursday bows.
After two days of play, Korea has grossed $681K in 2nd place behind local mystery The Closet. France has a running cume of $680K on 593 screens across Wednesday and Thursday.
The UK, Spain, Mexico and 25 smaller markets released today and we’ll have updated numbers on Saturday morning.