THURSDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water opened Wednesday in 15 material international box office markets, including France, Germany, Italy and Korea, and has posted an estimated $15.8M overall through yesterday.
Market shares are strong, including some at the 99% level (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, notably). On a like-for-like basis at today’s exchange rates, it’s estimated that the first day overall results are 124% ahead of the original Avatar, 70% above Top Gun: Maverick, 13% higher than Jurassic World: Dominion, 12% behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 23% behind Spider-Man: No Way Home.
As we reported yesterday, China had sneaks on Wednesday and Thursday, in an unfortunately reduced number owing to Covid issues in the market. Not included in the total above is the RMB 37.7M ($5.41M) that previews have clocked there. The film still rules presales for the weekend, but, again, as stated yesterday, we are taking a cautious stance.
Elsewhere, and not included in the total Wednesday number above, Korea added $2.6M on Thursday for a $5.8M running cume. The market on Wednesday had the 2nd highest opening day for the month of December ever.
In terms of Wednesday play, the Disney/20th Century Studios release was No. 1 in all markets. In Europe, 71% of box office came from 3D and other premium formats, Asia Pacific grabbed 39% and Latin America saw 55%.
France enjoyed the 4th best launch day of the pandemic with $2.9M and amid great distraction from our win over Morocco in the World Cup semi-final.
Germany scored the 2nd biggest opening day of the pandemic era and the top start for 2022 with $2.5M. Italy had 90% market share and the 4th best pandemic start at $1.6M. Sweden nabbed the top launch day of 2022 with 92% market share at $600K.
Before some markets begin in earnest, there are strong previews (not included in the total Wednesday tally above). Mexico’s sneaks are at $1.5M and Brazil’s at $1M for a total $4.4M across the whole Latin America region. Despite only being previews, The Way of Water was No. 1 in all Latin American markets on Wednesday. In the main, 55% of box office for the region came from 3D and other premium formats.
Elsewhere, Australia registered $1.3M of previews (again not included in the $15.8M to date reported above).
Here are the official Top 5 markets through Wednesday: Korea ($3.3M), France ($2.9M), Germany ($2.5M), Italy ($1.6M) and Indonesia ($800K).
There are more openings to come throughout today and Friday including Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and Japan.
As ever, we will continue to monitor and report through the weekend.
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PREVIOUS, WEDNESDAY: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water began its international box office rollout today in such majors as Korea, France, Germany and Italy — and with early sneaks in China. One of the most anticipated movies of recent years, it’s dominating play.
Some individual market grosses for opening day will come tomorrow, but for now we can report that Korea opened to $3.24M including midnights and with an 85% market share. This is lower than comps like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers: Infinity War which also debuted on a Wednesday. However, as we have previously noted, the three-hour-plus runtime makes this appointment viewing for some — today was a workday in the market. The Naver score is 9.48 which is above both of the comps cited above.
In China, The Way of Water had been planned for 3,000 showings at 7pm local today, but ended up doing just 1,688 screenings per our information. This is a result of the ongoing Covid issues in the market where 73% of cinemas are open and there is a confidence issue amid the about-face from the government on the zero-Covid policy. The resultant sneaks, before official opening on Friday, were worth RMB 20M ($2.9M). We wrote yesterday that $100M was possible in China this opening weekend; we are now taking a more cautious stance, even if hope springs. Douban and Maoyan critical and social scores have not yet posted.
Elsewhere, The Way of Water was tops in its afternoon showings in France today, notching 79,000 admissions from 1,210 screens for $728K. Notably, numbers were good for dubbed versions which indicates family play. France has a mega distraction today in that we are playing Morocco in the World Cup semi-final this evening and that’s likely to impact, as we wrote yesterday, the later showings. (Anecdotally, in the parking lot of my local giant supermarket four hours before the match, it was impossible to find a spot as the whole of my area descended to stock up for the semis.)
In other parts of Asia, we hear that early indications are encouraging from Philippines and Thailand.
There is much more to come on this Disney/20th Century Studios sequel which notably adds Australia, Brazil and Mexico on Thursday ahead of the UK, Spain, and Japan on Friday — we’ll be following through the weekend.