Another one I didn’t see coming
I only cut&pasted the films we’ve discussed here.
‘Resident Evil’ Rocks China With Record $94.3M Debut – International Box Office
by Nancy Tartaglione
February 26, 2017 3:58pm
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER
Screen Gems
UPDATE, WRITETRHU: While Fox’s Logan gets set to claw into global box office as it begins day-and-date rollout on Wednesday, the current frame was a major holdover and expansion fest. Business was particularly un-dead in China where Screen Gems/Constantin Films’ Resident Evil: The Final Chapter blazed in on a $94.3M debut to score the biggest-ever FSS opening in the market for an import. The Milla Jovovich-led epic zombie battle is also the No. 2 FSS launch for all films, behind 2015’s Lost In Hong Kong. As Anita Busch reported on Friday, the Paul W.S. Anderson-helmed sixth installment had an opening day Middle Kingdom gross of $33M, the third-highest ever for a Hollywood film.
The sensational China debut for The Final Chapter — whose title may end up being premature given these outsize grosses — catapults the market into the lead position, overtaking traditional No. 1 hub Japan. The film was released in China through Constantin’s local partner Leomus Pictures and benefited from a very targeted campaign with early in-cinema materials and advertising during the heavily-trafficked Chinese New Year holidays. Jovovich also attended Hong Kong’s CineAsia where she met members Chinese exhibition community and received the franchise achievement award with her director/husband Anderson.
The $40M movie was built for international audiences and is showing its strength at offshore turnstiles with a $212M cume to date which makes it the biggest of the franchise on a constant currency basis. In total this weekend, the gross was $97M from 21,200+ screens in 51 markets. Including domestic, the worldwide cume is $239M. The current leader among its predecessors is 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife with $296.2M.
In late January, Final Chapter helped push the full series across $1B worldwide to become the biggest video-game-based franchise of all time. (More detail to follow below.)
Overall, it was a busy weekend in China with the Top 5 all hailing from Hollywood. New Regency’s Assassin’s Creed was new, but a distant runner-up in the battle of the video-game titans, landing at No. 2 with $17.3M according to comScore. In IMAX, it grossed $3M from 389 screens there. Universal’s Sing dropped just 40% in 3rd place for a 10-day PROC total of $24M. It has now crossed $550M worldwide. In 4th at Chinese turnstiles, Paramount’s XXX: Return Of Xander Cage continued its muscular run, cruising past $150M. And, tonight’s Oscar frontrunner La La Land was No. 5 with $31M in the songbook to date. La La is now Lionsgate’s highest grossing film internationally and worldwide outside the Hunger Games and Twilight franchises.
Elsewhere in a bustling frame, Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter Two has crossed $50M internationally while The Weinstein Co’s Oscar nominee Lion has also crossed $50M offshore and is at nearly $95M worldwide.
Universal’s Fifty Shades Darker has cumed $328.3M worldwide ($224.7M IBO); Uni/Blumhouse’s Split has $221.2M in the global bank including a No. 1 Korea opening; and The Great Wall is now at $300M worldwide with a number of No. 1 openings and holds this session.
Breakdowns on those films and more have been updated below:
HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER
Sony
Screen Gems/Constantin Films’ sixth installment in the zombie franchise blew the doors off China‘s box office this weekend with a $94.3M debut that makes it the best FSS start ever for an import (overall market leader among Hollywood films, Furious 7, opened on a Sunday in 2015). The full weekend was worth $97M from 21,200+ screens in 51 total markets. Offshore, the cume to date is $212M with $239M worldwide.
China is now the lead market on The Final Chapter (which, given the performance, may no longer be the final chapter after all). That’s a first for the Middle Kingdom which was No. 2 on the last two pictures. They first began releasing in China with 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D with help from DMG whose relationships there soothed the censors to get a zombie-themed pic across the border. Typically, Japan has been the lead on all markets and this film got off to a strong start when it debuted there in December. Current local box office is upwards of $36M.
In China, The Final Chapter was released through Constantin’s local partner Leomus Pictures. The $33M opening day on Friday marks the No. 3 start for a Hollywood film behind Furious 7 ($68M) and Warcraft ($46M).
A targeted marketing campaign helped in China where locally-produced materials reinforced the nostalgia selling point. The IP has high awareness and advertising focused on using advertising to showcase great video materials to reinforce big-screen promise rather than relying heavily on paid social publicity to create buzz. Media buys included Toutiao (China’s Buzzfeed), Weibo and Tencent’s video pre-roll. The animation, comic and game sub-group of consumers — particularly the gamer segment — was highly-targeted by working with key opinion leaders of high-traffic ACG websites to generate UGC content. Early in-cinema materials and advertising during the Chinese New Year holidays also played a significant role.
Constantin Films’ Martin Moszkowicz says of partner Leomus, “Throughout the whole course, they have demonstrated professional understanding about the market, the audience and the IP, and came up with a very solid marketing & distribution plan that contributed to the huge box office success in China.”
Early on in the 15-year-old series, the pics spread out at about 60%-40% international versus domestic. That’s shifted to a weightier overseas pull since Afterlife with that film and Retribution taking about 80% of box office from offshore turnstiles where video game movies excel. Final Chapter’s current split is nearing 89% international and 11% domestic. Afterlife is thus far the biggest grosser of all at $296M global, followed by Retribution at $240M. The franchise crossed $1B in January.
Star Milla Jovovich and director Paul W.S. Anderson, along with other cast did a multi-country tour to help get the word out, including in Brazil, Hong Kong (for CineAsia), Japan, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan and Russia.
Sony smartly cast social influencers from around the world to appear in the film and take part in the epic final zombie battle. The influencers then acted as brand ambassadors throughout the global marketing campaign.
THE GREAT WALL
Universal
Legendary and Universal’s China/U.S. co-production has reached $300M worldwide with today’s estimates included. The offshore weekend scaled $14.6M in 46 territories for a Universal total of $94.6M outside China where the cume is $171M, building a $265.6M overseas war chest. Combined with domestic, the worldwide total is $300M. Global IMAX box office is now $28M.
There were eight openings this frame with No. 1s in Italy, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Panama and Central America and Paraguay. In Italy, the epic from Zhang Yimou took over the No. 1 spot from two local comedies on Saturday and will finish the opening weekend with $1.5M at 320 dates. Brazil also bowed No. 1 and is expected to gross $2.6M over this Carnival weekend. Russia’s second frame is solid at No. 2 behind local pic Zaschitniki ($3.35M). The drop there was just 26% for an $8.7M cume to date. In other holds, The Great Wall is No. 1 again in New Zealand, Columbia and Peru — in all cases ahead of new openers. The UK and Australia are looking at sop****re sessions that bring their respective totals to $4.5M and $4.3M. Japan is the next and final release on April 14.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER TWO
Lionsgate/Summit
Keanu Reeves’ assassin clocked another $13.1M in 79 markets in the 3rd frame, bringing the international cume to $51.1M and the worldwide hitlist to $125.5M. Those scores top original film’s offshore ($45.7M) and global ($88.8M) lifetimes. Korea’s debut bested the first film by 93% in local currency for a $1.3M start. Also gunning ahead of JW1 are France ($1.2M/+14%) and Mexico ($744K/+46%). Belgium and Sweden likewise bettered the first film at $253K (+85%) and $133K (+210%), respectively. Upcoming major releases include Italy on March 16, Spain on May 5 and Australia on May 11.
XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE
Paramount
Continuing its muscular run in China, Paramount’s Vin Diesel threequel pumped another $6.1M into the local box office for a super strong Middle Kingdom total of $152.6M. In 55 markets overall, the actioner added $8.6M for a $285.3M international cume. There were two new bows with Japan coming in at $1.4M from 306 locations and Poland at $311K from 112.
