‘Napoleon’ Conquers With $79M Global Bow; ‘Wish’ Debuts To $49M WW – International Box Office
UPDATE, writethru: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon has exceeded expectations with $78.8M global across the five-day opening frame, including $46.3M from the international box office. This is higher than the Friday estimate (see below), and well above pre-weekend projections.
Produced by Apple Original Films and distributed by Sony Pictures, the action epic started worldwide release on Wednesday and expanded to 56 offshore markets through Friday.
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Overseas, the Joaquin Phoenix-starrer doubled both Killers Of The Flower Moon and House Of Gucci, and is 86% ahead of Elvis in like-for-like markets at the same point in release. The bulk of play is coming from Europe with $33M, led by the UK’s No. 1 $6.6M and France’s No. 1 $5.6M (critics be damned, evidently). Germany, also at No. 1, grossed $3.4M, Spain did $3.3M at No. 1 and Italy took $3.1M.
In IMAX, Napoleon delivered $9M globally, including $3.7M from 324 international runs.
Sony spread the word globally with a world premiere in Paris, then premieres in the UK and Madrid (the latter at the Prado museum which was a first). Having the stars out on red carpets helped, and even some harsh reviews didn’t stop people, including the mature audience, coming out to see it.
The global media campaign called on influencers to create bespoke Napoleon content including Chef Amaury Guichon (35 million combined followers) to create a chocolate hat and sword fit. The team also leaned into the Napoleon ‘There’s nothing we can do’ trend on TikTok by working with creator Michael Hill and Ridley Scott which amassed nearly 20M views across social platforms.
Most of Asia is still to release including China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines.
Also new this session, though on a staggered overseas release pattern including just four majors, and beginning on Thursday, Disney’s Wish debuted to $49M global, of which $17.3M came from international.
Dis estimates that the offshore opening is 7% above Trolls Band Together in the same markets and at current rates, and even with Encanto. In Asia and Latin America, there was encouraging Friday to Saturday pickup as families came out.
The Top 5 openers were China ($3.5M), UK ($3M), Mexico ($2.1M), Spain ($1.5M) and Poland ($500K).
Asia-Pacific was soft and China was a disappointment – though not unexpected given that audiences are not responding to Hollywood fare like they did in the past. The film has an 8.6 audience score on Maoyan and a 6.7 from critics on Douban. Maoyan is forecasting a final of $6.6M. The market was led by new local titles that released on Friday and Saturday.
Markets still to come for Wish, and taking advantage of local holidays, include France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea and Brazil.
Notably, previews in Germany and France will have Wish at No. 1 for Sunday ahead of the official openings later this week.
Lionsgate’s sophomore frame for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes added another $26.2M internationally, and now has an offshore cume of $98.9M. Globally, it’s approaching the two-century mark with an estimated $197.3M through Sunday. The IMAX portion is now $11M worldwide.
Disney/Marvel’s The Marvels in its third weekend added $7.9M from 52 material international markets for a $110.2M offshore cume to date and $187.1M global.
Here are the Top 5 markets: China ($15.1M), UK ($8.2M), Mexico ($5.9M), France ($5.9M) and Indonesia ($5.6M).
In other holdover news, with a cume of $283.1M, Universal/Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s this weekend surpassed the global total of Split ($278.7M) to become the biggest Blumhouse film ever worldwide, having already taken the title of top Blumhouse film of all time internationally, and ranking as the biggest Blumhouse film ever in 42 overseas markets. In Korea, the sophomore session propelled it to become the biggest horror pic of 2023 there.
Speaking of Korea, new political drama, 12.12: The Day, from director Kim Sung-soo, brought some local oomph to the market with a No. 1 start of $14M.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Five Nights at Freddy’s (UNI): $4.8M Intl weekend (78 markets); $147M intl cume/$283.1M global
Trolls Band Together (UNI): $3.1M intl weekend (67 markets); $81.4M intl cume/$145.8M global
Killers of the Flower Moon (PAR): $1.5M intl weekend (58 markets); $86.2M intl cume/$151.8M global
Thanksgiving (SNY): $1.5M intl weekend (16 markets); $4.9M intl cume/$29.1M global
Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (PAR): $1.1M intl weekend (55 markets); $129M intl cume/$194.1M global
Saltburn (WB): $919K intl weekend (3 markets); $3.1M intl cume/$6.2M global
PREVIOUS: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon through Thursday has grossed an estimated $21M worldwide. The Apple Original Films and Sony Pictures action epic is now eyeing a $70M-$73M five-day global opening, including $40M from the international box office. Should those numbers hold, this will be well ahead of pre-weekend projections.
The Joaquin Phoenix-starrer stormed into eight overseas markets on Wednesday, including France and the UK (the latter going on a non-traditional Wednesday). On Thursday, Napoleon added 40 more markets, upping the running offshore cume to $8.9M through the first two days. Majors launching on Thursday were Oz, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Mexico – all release markets to date are opening Napoleon at No. 1. Today brings Spain, among others, on board to reach 56 hubs. In total, this weekend will rep 85% of the international footprint. Significant markets to come are China and Japan on December 1 and Korea on December 6.
Through Thursday, the top markets are the UK ($1.75M), France ($1.74M), Germany $530K, Australia ($493K), Italy ($447K) and Mexico ($424K).
The expectation is for the mature European markets to lead play.
Notably, France is seeing a strong start that’s somewhat surprising given the critical score of 2.9 on AlloCiné. Responding to the harsh reviews last week, Scott exhibited his customary swagger telling the BBC, “The French don’t even like themselves. The audience that I showed it to in Paris, they loved it.”
Napoleon world premiered in Paris on November 14 with Scott, Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, as well as Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, Tom Rothman.
We’ll have more throughout the weekend.
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