SATURDAY UPDATE: Warner Bros/New Line/DCs Shazam! added another $29.2M in a total 79 markets on Friday, lifting the international box office cume to $44M across three days. That running tally does not include the China Saturday which is looking to be about $9.8M. The unofficial early estimate would reflect a 36% Friday-Saturday drop.
Shazam! is doing just fine elsewhere with No. 1 rankings in 61 markets (and is strong domestically). Hes looking to get up around the $100M zone in the offshore debut, but as we noted yesterday, a softer-than-hoped China performance puts that in a close swing.
Word of mouth is understood to be impacting the Middle Kingdom, as well as the strength of local actioner P Storm which is in the top spot (though it too saw an F-S drop, of about 11%). The Shazam! Douban score has slipped to 6.7 and were hearing that the youth-skewing American humor may not be translating quite as well as hoped. With an estimated $25.1M (RMB 168.5M) through Saturday, the full weekend in China should top out around $35M. (Its worth noting that theres sometimes a silver lining when a movie isnt overly reliant on China given the return on box office in the Middle Kingdom is lower than elsewhere.)
In the rest of play, Friday openers included family/superhero-friendly Mexico with $1.6M on 2,829 screens and nearly 50% of the Top 5 films. The launch day results are ahead of Guardians Of The Galaxy (+22%), Ant-Man (+21%) and Captain America: The First Avenger (+13%).
The UK bowed with $1.5M on 620 screens, taking the No. 1 spot for 35% of the Top 5 titles. The score is 4% ahead of Cap 1 and roughly on par with Ant-Man. Including previews, the running cume is now $1.7M.
India released to an estimated $511K on 1,138 screens, ranking as the top U.S. film in the market, and more than doubling AM and GOTG. Spain debuted to $382K on 441 at No. 2 and 27% above AM.
Across two days of release, Russia has cumed $1.9M and is holding the No. 1 slot; Brazil is also still at No. 1 with $848K to date; Australia has grossed $1.3M at No. 1; and the UAE is a No. 1 play with $1.2M so far.
With three days under its belt, Indonesia leads the SE Asia markets with $2.6M. Also after three days, Taiwan has taken $1.8M, Korea is at $1.6M and Thailand (where Shazam! had an 82% share of the Top 5 on Friday) has grossed $1M. France is at $1.1M, continuing to rank No. 1.
Well have a full international update on Sunday.
PREVIOUS, FRIDAY: New Line/Warner Bros/DCs Shazam! is the word in its first offshore openings with $15.7M at the international box office through yesterday. The superhero story from director David F Sandberg took No. 1 bows in 48 of 53 markets on Wednesday and Thursday, including all of Asia Pacific and Latin America. Hopping on board today are China, Spain, the UK, Mexico and 22 smaller hubs.
The first WB estimates out of China, which are not included in the two-day total above, have the pic at $16.4M today (with previews). Shazam! is jockeying for the No. 1 spot against local title P Storm, an actioner that stars Louis Koo. Today kicked off the Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, and the Friday reps WBs 3rd best launch day ever, behind Aquaman and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Expect a roughly $45M-$50M three-day in the Middle Kingdom where theres a 7 on reviews aggregator Douban and an 8 on ticketing platform Maoyan.
Overall, pre-weekend offshore projections were pegged by our sources to be in the $100M-$120M zone. Based on the debuts so far, and as long as China doesnt see a major drop, Shazam! should handily cross the century mark through Sunday.
A lack of familiarity with the character abroad is not expected to have a major impact as folks are seeking something new, DumboRead More – Source
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