Fantastic Beasts 2 Tops $500M WW; Crazy Rich Asians DOA In China With $1.2M Bow – International Box Office
Warner Bros.
Refresh for latest…: In a weekend dominated by holdovers and expansions, Warner Bros Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald leads the international box office for the third session in a row, conjuring $40.2M in 80 markets. That brings the overseas cume to $385.3M and global across the $500M mark to $519.6M. On the other end of the spectrum, WBs Crazy Rich Asians was dead on arrival in China, mustering just $1.2M over the opening frame.
The China performance of Crazy Rich Asians, which began global rollout in August, is not wholly unexpected. Middle Kingdom authorities took their time giving the pic a slot, waiting until mid-October to set its bow on November 30. A cultural phenomenon domestically, and already a profitable proposition at $238M worldwide box office, CRAs all-Asian cast is not a novelty in China.
As weve previously noted, the market, like other majors in Asia, has its own solidly performing homegrown romcoms. Did folks there really need to see a Westernized version of a genre that is already tailored to their tastes? Turns out, not so much (and for those whose curiosity was piqued by the huge North American success, its likely the film was sought out by other means duirng the lengthy interim). Overall, Hollywood romantic comedies are hit-and-miss abroad and the last one in recent memory to gain access to China was Bridget Joness Baby which did just about $750K.
A source on the ground in China says of CRA, “Nobody cares about it.” I hear folks arent talking about it, or even criticizing it (it has a 6.2 on Douban). “Most just dont even know of its existence,” Im told. Warner is understood not to have spent big on the pic in the Middle Kingdom, and has rather been pulling out the stops for next weeks early bow of Aquaman.
Does this affect CRA sequel China Rich Girlfriend? Theres been some talk of it potentially shooting in the Middle Kingdom, although I understand a script has yet to be turned in and any decisions about locations will come much further down the line.
Turning back for the moment to FB2, the movie is currently running on par with the original Fantastic Beasts in both the Europe/Middle East/Africa and Latin America regions. China leads all play at $56.2M (about $16M down on the first movie at the same point in release), followed by the UK (which is also soft compared to FB1), Germany, Japan and France. Both Germany and Japan held their No. 1 rankings this session.
Twentieth Century Fox/New Regency/GK Films Bohemian Rhapsody, meanwhile, keeps strutting its stuff across the global stage with a $37M weekend to bring the international box office to $375.1M. This is after the worldwide cume surpassed $500M on Friday, boosted by tiny drops in major markets. Korea is still up (+51%) over its opening weekend with the Freddie Mercury biopic now becoming the markets all-time top musical. Japan increased 22% from last session and the UK has topped Les Mis at $54.7M. The full weekend was down just 19%.
Disneys Ralph Breaks The Internet was the big UK newcomer this frame, taking a clear No. 1. The sequel overall is tracking well ahead of its predecessor and still has about half the overseas footprint to come. The full weekend was worth $33.7M in 27 material markets for an international cume of $87.7M after two frames and a global haul of $207M so far.
In other family fare, Universal/Illuminations The Grinch stole into a further 20 markets to lift the offshore cume to $64.8M with Mexico, China, Japan, Korea and Russia still on deck. The global gift box counts $268.3M to date.
In its 4th China weekend, Sonys Venom held the No. 2 spot there to cume $262M as its run is expected to now wind down (unless its granted a last-minute extension). The full overseas total to date is $631.7M for $844M worldwide.
Breakdowns on the films above and more are being updated below.
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