The global box office got animated this past weekend as animated hits took center stage, according to the latest report from the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero topped the global box office with a $33.1 million weekend, bringing its global gross to $51.6 million (including a mid-June release in Japan).
The worldwide launch of Bullet Train across 58 markets topped the global box office chart and many local ones this past weekend, but the continued success of local titles finding space in a quieter global release schedule grabbed the headlines, according to the latest report from the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. The report goes on to say that the challenge for exhibitors is how to sustain this momentum with an upcoming slate of films that don’t appear to be as strong as the summer films have proven to be.
Another Marvel blockbuster thundered into the Global number one spot this past weekend as Thor: Love and Thunder debuted at $303.2 million. The Domestic launch saw Love and Thunder ($144.2 million) outstrip 2018’s Thor: Ragnarok, also directed by Taika Waititi, by just shy of 17.5 percent. However, it significantly trailed 2022’s previous MCU title Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (-23 percent), according to a new report from the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. A similar trend was seen internationally where Love and Thunder’s reported $159 million debut across 47 markets tracked 29 percent ahead of Ragnarok but 32 percent behind the Doctor Strange sequel. Overall, box office results were mixed across the board.
Signs of adult audiences returning continued this week, according to the London-based analytics firm Gower Street, as Baz Luhrmann’s with a $31.2 million opening Elvis prevented Top Gun: Maverick from flying back into the top spot on the Domestic chart. The biopic delivered $51.2 million globally from 52 launch markets. It scored number one in Luhrmann’s home-market, Australia ($4.7 million including previews), as well as in the UK/Ireland ($4.9 million), Italy ($925,000), Netherlands ($849,000), and New Zealand ($662,000).
An incredible set of holds for Top Gun: Maverick kept it flying high at the global box office in its second weekend, according to the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. The film added an estimated $176.3 million bringing the global total after 12 days to $557.2 million. After setting an opening record for Tom Cruise over the Memorial Day weekend in the Domestic market, this past weekend Top Gun: Maverick added a phenomenal $90 million in North America which would still have scored Cruise his biggest opening if this had been week one. The film dropped just 29 percent, the best week-two hold for a $100 million-plus opener.
The Marvel sequel Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness delivered a colossal $449.8 million global opening, according to the latest report from the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. The launch was the second biggest of the pandemic-era behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home, which also featured the character of Doctor Strange (as played by Benedict Cumberbatch). The new hit reportedly tracked just 17 percent behind No Way Home in like-for-like markets. Multiverse of Madness did not release in Russia, due to the ongoing studio boycott of the market following the invasion of Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia, where it was banned.
Who said April is the cruelest month? In its second week of release, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 received a major boost as it opened in the Domestic market with a massive $72.1 million, proving the suggestion audiences weren’t coming back to cinemas incorrect, they just needed the product. Sonic 2 opened 24 percent higher than the 2020 original, according to the British analytics firm Gower Street.
There was so much happening at the global box office in 2021 it was, perhaps, easy to overlook one of the most significant pieces of news: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia overtook Italy in annual box office in terms US dollars, according to a new report from the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. This put Saudi Arabia into the top six markets in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, the report said. It marked the first time on modern record that one of the so-called big six European markets (UK/Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Spain) had been supplanted.
Following a strong January, which recorded an estimated $1.9 billion in global box office, up 94 percent year-on-year, the Chinese New Year holiday, which began February 1, delivered strong box office results for exhibitors, according to the London-based analytics firm Gower Street. The holiday week is reported to have delivered just over $940 million at the box office in China, the world’s top global market. While this is down 21 percent on the record haul taken in the 2021 holiday week it is ahead of 2019’s pre-pandemic numbers.
This past weekend marked the two-year anniversary of China’s first lockdown in 2020, which marked the beginning of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global box office. There have been a lot of ups and downs since then but there has also been recovery and, despite a few limited re-closures in the past two months, the global exhibition sector, and as a result global box office, is in a far more robust place than it was a year ago, according to the latest report from the London analytics firm Gower Street. China’s business was dormant this week with long-running local holdovers Embrace Again and Fireflies in the Sun sustaining the market until the Chinese New Year holiday begins on February 1.
