WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 6, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 6, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

1. Joker: Folie à Deux–$119m worldwide debut 

2. The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death–$113m ww debut 

3. Bureau749–$50m ww

4. Tiger Wolf Rabbit–$48m ww debut 

5. The Wild Robot–$47m / $100m ww 

6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$30m / $403m ww 

7. Panda Plan aka Project Panda–$28m ww debut 

8. Transformers One–$25m / $97m ww 

9. High Forces–$25m ww debut 

10. Devara: Part 1–$11m /$44m ww 

11. Speak No Evil–$9m / $67m ww 

12. Deadpool & Wolverine–$8m / $1.329b ww

13. Despicable Me 4–$5m / $958m ww 

14. Alien: Romulus–$5m / $348m ww

15. White Bird–$5m ww debut 

16. Inside Out 2–$4m / $1.691b ww

17. It Ends With Us–$4m / $345m ww 

18. A Tapestry of a Legendary Land–$4m ww debut

19. Veteran 2 aka I, The Executioner–$3m / $50m ww

20. Megalopolis–$3m / $9m ww 

21. New Happy Dad and Son 6: Shrunk–$3m ww debut

22. Give You A Candy–$3m ww debut 

23. The Hutong Cowboy–$3m ww debut

24. Howl's Moving Castle–$2m / $240m ww

25. Blink Twice–$2m / $46m* (see notes below) 

26. The Forge–$2m / $31m ww

27. Never Let Go–$2m / $13m ww

28. My Old Ass–$2m / $5m ww

29. Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal–$2m ww debut 

30. Love in the Big City–$2m ww debut 

31. Stree 2–$1m / $104m

32. Reagan–$1m / $29m ww

33. The Substance–$1m / $16m ww 

34. Am I Racist?–$1m / $12m ww

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is tearing it up...and Halloween is still 24 days away!  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice should continue to have good legs through the end of October. I think $500m is a possibility and that's amazing for a sequel to a film that grossed $85m worldwide.

Of course the big news is Joker: Folie à Deux, which began with bad buzz as opening day approached. Then the people who saw it first really hated it. Someone suggested it might have opened better if they hadn't played at a festival first. Well, maybe a little, but that's beside the point. Critics and audiences found the film hugely disappointing. And not because it's a quasi-musical. Beetlejuice has several dance numbers and sends people home singing "Macarthur Park" so just leave any perceived problems out of it. (And Deadpool and Wolverine's best bit includes Madonna's "Like A Prayer." Just saying. Also, anyone second guessing Joker 2 and its $190m budget is crazy. The first made an extraordinary $1 billion worldwide, director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix deserved much more upfront (they certainly won't see it on the back end) and then Lady Gaga signed up to give the musical legitimacy. It was a reasonable bet. 

The good news, however, is all about The Wild Robot. It held very nicely and has more in the bank than Transformers One, which opened a week earlier. On the other hand, everyone who suddenly decided not to see Joker 2 might give Transformers One another chance. Probably not, but I'm just hoping. I actually saw a double bill of The Wild Robot and Transformers One at my local drive-in. The Wild Robot was less annoying than I expected and low-key clever as a service robot lost on an island decides its task is to raise a baby goose and prepare it for its first migration. Oh, lessons were learned and lots of hugging happened, but they didn't come hard and fast until the finale. Otherwise quite enjoyable. Then my car radio wouldn't work for Transformers One so I still haven't seen that one. 

In China, National Day kicked off a slew of big new movies and so far we have three clear winners. They include director Chen Kaige's Korean war sequel The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death, the sci-fi action film Bureau749 and the revenge drama Tiger Wolf Rabbit. Check out the notes for each film below for the inside scoop; The Volunteers in particular is an interesting one. 

A friend asked me if Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis might become a cult hit, the immediate question studios ask themselves when a movie crashes and burns. I haven't seen it. But usually a future cult hit will have some remarkable or interesting aspect to it, something championed by an ardent few. I've seen nothing but critical dislike, even as some pan for gold and declare it nicely shot or that Aubrey Plaza triumphs. Not enough. And the few friends with arty taste who saw it really hated it and said it's not even enjoyably bad. Oh and the idea that Coppola was a misunderstood genius in the past is nonsense, ChatGPT trailer or no ChatGPT trailer . The Godfather was praised and won every award in sight, while dominating the box office. The Godfather Part II and The Conversation were both wildly acclaimed in 1974, with both nominated for Best Picture. They couldn't both win but in no way were they misunderstood. The Godfather Part II  was a critical and commercial watershed while The Conversation was immediately acclaimed; its stock has only risen since then. And it was so modestly budgeted I think it counts as a box office winner, though nowhere near the success of The Godfather Part II. Finally, Apocalypse Now was certainly high drama, even before it was released and had reviews all over the map. But by and large it was praised, a box office smash and won the top prize at Cannes and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Hardly scorned. (It lost to Kramer Vs. Kramer. The other nominees were All That Jazz, Breaking Away and Norma Rae. Really, the Academy couldn't go wrong that year. 

China box office hit $5.1b for the year, while North American box office is at $6.2b (sure, cheat by including Canada, NATO!). 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies in 2024 than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we have every reason to expect box office back in $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

1. Joker–a reported $190mb. This won't come close to $600m worldwide, so I'm afraid it's a flop. 

2. The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death–a sequel to China's 2023's The Volunteers: To The War, which launched this trilogy about China's involvement in the Korean War (or "police action," if you accept the Orwellian description of the US government). The first film was a reported $85mb, so presumably the sequel is the same? Director Chen Kaige already made two films about just one battle in the Korean War: The Battle at Lake Changjin I and II. They were shot back-to-back and cost a reported $200mb. (I'm assuming that was the total cost for both films.) Together they grossed a massive $1.5 billion worldwide. No wonder they greenlit a three-quel! This time, they spent at least 13 months filming, so surely that means they shot the entire trilogy in one fell swoop. But I bet the budget has been cut in thirds, so it doesn't seem so big and the total is $240m or so for three films, which seems reasonable compared to $200mb for two films that proved such massive hits. But who the heck knows? I'm making a lot of guesses here. According to my Showbiz Sandbox notes from last year, The Volunteers: To The War topped out at about $120m worldwide. Needless to say, that's a stunning drop from the $900m the first in the Lake duology grossed. This one opened at $111m, so whew! Maybe there are more victories in the sequel? If nothing else, it's off to a better start.

3. Bureau 749–Chinese sci-fi film. From the trailer, it's the present/near-future and some sort of alien attack is taking place. That means Bureau 749 must spring into action, a military group of some sort that recruits a hot young guy who is an outcast because of his "deformities" (he has some scarring on his back) and yet will prove vital to fighting off the creatures somehow or other. The only English language review I saw was not kind. 

4. Tiger Wolf Rabbit–a Chinese crime drama of sorts. Three people united by having lost a child (to kidnapping, maybe?) join together on a road trip for revenge. 

5. The Wild Robot–$80mb. Ha! Based on prior films from DreamWorks Animation I guessed this film's budget was around $80mb. And Wikipedia now says its roughly $78mb. I rounded up $2m so I could be right on the dot (plus, the math is easier when tripling).

6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–a reported $100mb and good audience response means this is a winner right off the bat. Hardly a slam dunk, by the way. The original came out almost 35 years ago and only grossed $78m worldwide.  So the sequel cost more than the entire first film's worldwide gross! That's not a recipe for success, normally. But the original only cost $15mb to make and everyone knew it enjoyed a long afterlife, thanks to tv reruns, Halloween, the Broadway musical and so on. Still, gamble it was and the gamble paid off.    

7. Panda Plan aka Project Panda–a new Jackie Chan comedy in which he rescues a (CGI-generated) panda. Hilarity and heartwarming moments ensue in this family oriented action comedy. The English language title is officially Panda Plan. But the original Chinese title translates literally as Project Panda. Somebody probably made good money advising that unnecessary title change. 

8. Transformers One–a reported $75mb per the trades, though Animation Magazine has a nice feature with the director and producer and offers up $147m for the budget, which is interestingly specific. So, there's that. 

9. High Forces–it's Die Hard in a plane! Sort of. (Remember when every action film was Die Hard in...? Those were the days.) In this Hong Kong action film Andy Lau stars as a cop who accidentally blinded his daughter when stopping a jewel robbery. His marriage ends and he quits the force to work as a security expert. Years later, Lau boards the ultra-luxury Airbus A380, only to see his wife and daughter on board  Hijackers take off the plane and start killing off passengers in economy (Man, you really should have upgraded.) Lau takes them on, with his blind daughter somehow secretly providing him intel to defeat the baddies. If it's set during Christmas time, I'll say Yipee-kiyay! 

10. Devara: Part 1 ($33mb; Indian-Telugu) begins with threat to major cricket match in 1996. Then has an elaborate flashback story about Devara, who vows to stop smuggling on the Red Seas and kills any villager who tries to continue the practice. I've no idea how this ties into the threat against the cricket match but maybe Part 2 will explain all. Stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. in multiple roles. 

11. Speak No Evil–James McAvoy stars in a horror film costing a reported $15mb. Horror travels well, McAvoy is a draw, the film grossed more than its budget on opening week. Winner!

12. Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb means it's still a big winner. 

13. Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps

14. Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb  

15. White Bird–A reported $20mb. It's a sequel/prequel to the 2017 film Wonder. Here a teen (from the first film) tells his awesome grandma (Helen Mirren) that he feels pressured to fit in at his new school and not cause waves. In response, she tells him about her childhood when fleeing the Holocaust. So it's a teaching moment! 

16. Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time.  

17. It Ends With Us–a $25mb reported budget. 

18. A Tapestry of a Legendary Land–this Chinese film seems to be adapting a famed dance piece into a theatrical film. A scholar studying a famed tapestry is magically transported back in time to embody the artist that painted it. I'm not sure if there's even any dialogue in the film, which is realistic, than dance-oriented but set in the past and then purely abstract and pretty. 

19. Veteran 2: I, The Executioner–A South Korean crime drama often simply called I, The Executioner and sequel to the 2015 hit film Veteran. The original cost $5mb and grossed more than $90m worldwide, so a sequel was inevitable, delayed only by the COVID pandemic. I am assuming the sequel cost $7mb but the numbers are a little unclear. Nonetheless, even if the budget doubled they should be in good shape. 

20. Megalopolis–a reported $140mb means Francis Ford Coppola is not pulling off a miracle a la Apocalypse Now, not this time, unfortunately. 

21. New Happy Dad and Son 6: Shrunk–the latest in a string of low budget animated Chinese films, this one with a Honey, I Shrunk The Kids angle. Since the second in the series only grossed $12m and they've made four more, I assume it's extremely low-budgeted. 

22. Give You A Candy–Chinese film I'm unable to get any info on. 

23. The Hutong Cowboy–A Chinese comedy about an older taxi driver humiliated at his son's wedding. But he somehow becomes an online influencer and his life improves in every way that matters. Plus he wears a cowboy hat. 

24. Howl's Moving Castle–($24mb) Grossed $236m prior to latest re-release in 2024. 

25. Blink Twice–Hahahaha. Last week I was flummoxed when the total gross for Blink Twice suddenly jumped to $68m ww according to both Wikipedia, The Numbers and Box Office Mojo. Well, something had gone klabooey and got corrected because this week the movie is back down to $46m. Two weeks ago I had it at about $44m, so I've just pretended it grossed $2m this week for neatness's sake. The total is now $46m and since the budget was at least a reported $20mb, I've removed the film's designation as a winner from box office alone. Nonetheless, given Chris Pine and the other names involved, I'm sure it will be profitable enough for everyone involved and a solid first effort commercially by director Zoë Kravitz. 

26. The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Success! Reported $5mb. 

27. Never Let Go–$20mb. A survivalist horror film. Momma (Halle Berry) tells her two kids The Evil has taken over the world and they must stay in an isolated cabin on their own. She's lying about the world being over, but The Evil is real. Boo! Let me give it another week to see the hold, but it's likely this will be a winner. 

28. My Old Ass–Sundance film written and directed by Megan Park. An 18 year old girl named Elliott is on the cusp of college, exploring her sexuality and some psychedelics when she's visited by Older Elliott, herself from the future. Older Elliott tries to warn younger Elliott off certain things, but all she'll say is avoid a boy named Chad. The next day, Elliott meets Chad. 

29. Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal–YouTubers who "investigate" the paranormal take their schtick to the big screen with this documentary. 

30. Love in the Big City–Korean romantic comedy about two young people falling in love...in a big city. 

31. Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

32. Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents! 

33. The Substance–$18mb reported for the Demi Moore body horror comeback.

34. Am I Racist?–With a reported budget of $3mb, this is a right wing documentary mocking efforts to improve diversity in society, focusing on D.E.I. initiatives. It fooled participants a la Borat. And with $9m so far, it's a big hit for a documentary film. (And yes, you are.)

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

1. The Wild Robot–$46m / $53m ww

2. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$43m / $373m worldwide total

3. Transformers One–$33m / $72m ww 

4. Devara: Part 1–$33m worldwide debut 

5. Blink Twice–$24m / $68m* (see notes below) 

6. Speak No Evil–$16m / $58m ww 

7. Never Let Go–$11m ww debut 

8. The Substance–$9m / $15m ww 

9. It Ends With Us–$6m / $341m ww

10. Veteran 2 aka I, The Executioner–$6m / $47m ww

11. Megalopolis–$6m ww debut 

12. The School of Magical Animals 3–$6m ww debut 

13. Despicable Me 4–$5m / $953m 

14. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–$5m / $16m ww 

15. Inside Out 2–$4m / $1.687b

16. Deadpool & Wolverine–$4m / $1.321b ww 

17. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–$4m / $34m ww 

18. The Greatest of All Time–$3m /$54m ww 

19. My Old Ass–$3m 

20. Howl's Moving Castle–$2m / $238m ww

21. Stree 2–$2m / $103m 

22. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–$2m / $66m 

23. The Forge–$2m / $29m

24. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–$2m / $13m ww  

25. Am I Racist?–$2m / $11m ww 

26. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–$2m / $9m ww  

27. The Killer's Game–$2m / $6m ww

28. Successor–$1m / $476m 

29. Alien: Romulus–$1m / $343m ww 

30. Reagan–$1m / $28m 

31. The Crow (2024)–$1m / $24m

32. The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru–$1m / $5m ww

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is tearing it up...and Halloween is still one month away!  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice should continue to have good legs through the end of October. I think $500m is a possibility and that's amazing for a sequel to a film that grossed $85m worldwide.

But the big winner of the week is The Wild Robot. It opened strongly in North America, enjoys great audience response and good reviews and everyone hopes it legs out for DreamWorks Animation. With a reported budget of $80mb, it's...in exactly the same space as Transformers One was in after its opening weekend. That proved a disappointment as audiences are proving slow to recognize that one as an artistic winner they would enjoy. Both of them face a wide open field for the family audience until Moana 2 opens on November 27. Somehow I think Transformers One will be hurt more by Joker 2 and other fare while The Wild Robot will be seen as straightforward family fare. Plus, The Wild Robot hopes to replicated other DWA movies and do better overseas than in the U.S. Megatron and friends kind of fell through the cracks as not quite kiddie and not quite adult fare, though I'm sure it will enjoy a long tail success when it hits streaming. 

In India, superstar N.T. Rama Rao Jr. releases his 30th film and it's a hit for him and the Telugu industry. (The Hindi creators–the classic Bollywood arm of India–continues to struggle a bit, with Stree 2 the happy exception.) The market overall remains very quiet, with the Tamil actioner The Greatest Of Them All lucky to gross its reported budget. Of course you need to triple your budget by our standards to be considered a hit from box office alone. 

In Korea, Veterans 2 remains the bright spot in another moribund market. You could have a Top 10 film just by grossing $70,000. China? Nothing there. A Hollywood movie (Transformers One) tops the charts  but with less than $5m. Local fare that opened modestly is falling hard, so no Successor-like hits happening yet.

The North American market is back, entirely. All it needs is more movies, all the time. The rest of the world? Not so much. China will come roaring back this week, however, since its National Day and big movies will be opening up starting Monday Sept 30. 

For smaller fare, it was a great week for conservatives at the box office. Am I Racist? is doing gangbusters with its Borat-like prank documentary mocking those calling for a more inclusive, respectful society. The film hit $11m and is enjoying a great hold. This one will be on the list of the 100 top grossing documentaries of all time worldwide; plus it's quadrupling a reported budget of $3mb. A win all around, so expect a sequel. It overshadows convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza's Vindicating Trump but that's at #12, which ain't too shabby for a doc either. Plus, Dennis Quaid won't get an Oscar nomination and Reagan won't be profitable, but that saintly biopic is closing in on $30m. Toss in The Forge–a faith-based film–and you've got one of the strongest lineups of conservative films on the charts at the same time in quite a while. 

Oh, Megalopolis. It's no surprise the film flopped. (But it got a standing ovation at film festivals!) It's not even a surprise at how big it flopped. I mean, I didn't bother to go see it and I have an AMC movie pass! Will I see it this week? I'm tempted. Did they have any people planted in audiences to pull off one of the film's goofier stunts? I haven't heard a word about that, though surely theater chains could find an employee willing to slip in and do it, no? I may also go see The Wild Robot but it's not a given. And I would definitely have seen Howl's Moving Castle and bought some popcorn at the concession stand...but like most re-releases, it's not covered by my monthly pass, which aggravates me to no end. 

Next week, Joker: Folie à Deux opens. It won't flop like Megalopolis. But it also won't come within a mile of the $1billion grossing 2019 film. Reviews are more mixed than the original, it's a musical and it's called Folie à Deux, people! I mean, come on. I have not looked at tracking; I'm just assuming. 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies in 2024 than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we have every reason to expect box office back in $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

1. The Wild Robot–$80mb. Ha! Based on prior films from DreamWorks Animation I guessed this film's budget was around $80mb. And Wikipedia now says its roughly $78mb. I rounded up $2m so I could be right on the dot (plus, the math is easier when tripling).

2. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–a reported $100mb and good audience response means this is a winner right off the bat. Hardly a slam dunk, by the way. The original came out almost 35 years ago and only grossed $78m worldwide.  So the sequel cost more than the entire first film's worldwide gross! That's not a recipe for success, normally. But the original only cost $15mb to make and everyone knew it enjoyed a long afterlife, thanks to tv reruns, Halloween, the Broadway musical and so on. Still, gamble it was and the gamble paid off.   

3. Transformers One–a reported $75mb per the trades, though Animation Magazine has a nice feature with the director and producer and offers up $147m for the budget, which is interestingly specific. So, there's that. 

4. Devara: Part 1 ($33mb; Indian-Telugu) begins with threat to major cricket match in 1996. Then has an elaborate flashback story about Devara, who vows to stop smuggling on the Red Seas and kills any villager who tries to continue the practice. I've no idea how this ties into the threat against the cricket match but maybe Part 2 will explain all. Stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. in multiple roles. 

5. Blink Twice–Usually reported with a $20mb, which sounds right. Though some insist $80mb because of delays. Who knows? I had the film at about $44m worldwide but this week, both Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo insist it's now at $68m worldwide. It certainly didn't gross $24m this week, since it's essentially played out all over the world. As I've noted before, sometimes international box office figures...trickle in. If we assume a $20mb and ignore the delays that director Zoë Kravitz certainly wasn't responsible for, then this is a win for all involved. While I'm always suspicious when box office numbers leap unexpectedly, no studio or an exhibitor has much of an incentive to fake a massive increase in box office. Producers? Sure. You can't trust producers! :) 

6. Speak No Evil–James McAvoy stars in a horror film costing a reported $15mb. Horror travels well, McAvoy is a draw, the film grossed more than its budget on opening week. Winner! 

7. Never Let Go–$20mb. A survivalist horror film. Momma (Halle Berry) tells her two kids The Evil has taken over the world and they must stay in an isolated cabin on their own. She's lying about the world being over, but The Evil is real. Boo! Let me give it another week to see the hold, but it's likely this will be a winner. 

8. The Substance–$18mb reported for the Demi Moore body horror comeback.

9. It Ends With Us–a $25mb   

10. Veteran 2: I, The Executioner–A South Korean crime drama often simply called I, The Executioner and sequel to the 2015 hit film Veteran. The original cost $5mb and grossed more than $90m worldwide, so a sequel was inevitable, delayed only by the COVID pandemic. I am assuming the sequel cost $7mb but the numbers are a little unclear. Nonetheless, even if the budget doubled they should be in good shape.

11. Megalopolis–a reported $140mb means Francis Ford Coppola is not pulling off a miracle a la Apocalypse Now, not this time, unfortunately. 

12. The School of Magical Animals 3–How did I ever miss The School of Magical Animals 1 and 2? This German family film is obviously the third in a series about a school where certain students get a magical animal in one class (from a pet store run by a Scottish fellow). He flips over a magical coat and the animal pops out. Adventure ensues! It's based on a series of books by German author Margit Auer, which she launched in 2013 and has 13 novels in the series (perhaps including a spin-off with stories for younger readers). Needless to say, the film is a poor man's Harry Potter (though who knows, maybe the books are good). The third film's trailer tracks a little older than the first film, so maybe it's growing up along with the kids who read it, also like Potter? The first film grossed $22m worldwide and the second $19m, so I assume this is somehow pretty modestly budgeted at, who knows, $7m or so? Else why would they make more? If this hits $20m I'll consider it a win.  

13. Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps  

14. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–this Chinese drama is about a woman in her 50s who breaks away (from a husband? family?) and starts to live for herself by driving around the country in a "self-guided tour." You know, a road trip. In China it's called Chu Zao de Jue Zin, which translates to Determination to Leave. That works, but the official English title is apparently Like A Rolling Stone, which is terrible and for a moment made me think the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet opened in China first. 

15. Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time.  

16. Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb 

17. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–a Japanese animated film opening in China one week before its Sept 19 debut in Japan. The Doraemon franchise is vast and impressive, all based on a manga launched in 1969 about a robotic cat who travels back in time to help a little boy. They churn out new animated films roughly every March, among other properties. Those number more than 40 films and counting. But the Stand By Me movies are a separate thing and the first two were notably more successful than the usual low-budget fare and presumably have a bigger budget. The first grossed about $150m ww and the second about $80m ww, so that's a big step down. Still, they don't rush these out: it's been four years since the second "big" Doraemon film. So we shall see.... 

18. The Greatest of all Time–an Indian Tamil sci-fi movie starring Vijay, it involves rogue clones or something and cost $50mb, a big big number for Indian films. Audiences would need to ignore critics for this one to become a hit. A big second weekend drop of about 60% means that's not happening and the film probably won't be a hit. But Vijay may not care so much: he's left movies and launched a regional political party to push back against the BJP and its fascist attempt to demonize Muslims while ending India's long, great history of secular government. At least, I think that's what he's doing, as far as I can tell.

19. My Old Ass–Sundance film written and directed by Megan Park. An 18 year old girl named Elliott is on the cusp of college, exploring her sexuality and some psychedelics when she's visited by Older Elliott, herself from the future. Older Elliott tries to warn younger Elliott off certain things, but all she'll say is avoid a boy named Chad. The next day, Elliott meets Chad. 

20. Howl's Moving Castle–($24mb) Grossed $236m prior to latest re-release in 2024. 

21. Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

22. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.

23. The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Success! Reported $5mb.  

24. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–on the other hand, this Chinese comic drama is about a man who takes on a criminal gang of "oil thieves." (Gasoline thieves?) Why? Because their reckless behavior led to an accident that crippled his brother. So the official English title of A Frozen Rage kind of gets to the "taking on the bad guys" idea. But in Chinese it's called Yi Xue Qian Chi and that translates literally to Eat Before Medicine, which WTF? But hey, that lets you know it's more comedy than Erin Brockovich. (At least looking at the poster.)  

25. Am I Racist?–With a reported budget of $3mb, this is a right wing documentary mocking efforts to improve diversity in society, focusing on D.E.I. initiatives. It fooled participants a la Borat. And with $9m so far, it's a big hit for a documentary film. (And yes, you are.)

26. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–drama about a divorced couple battling over who has the right to possess the human embryo they created. 

27. The Killer's Game–Reported $30mb. An action comedy starring Dave Bautista as an assassin told he has a terminal illness. He hires someone to take him out painlessly, discovers the prognosis was a false alarm but the assassin is determined to take him out anyway.  

28. Successor–Chinese comedy about poor family depending on school-age son for their future. 

29. Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb  

30. Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents! 

31. The Crow (2024)–$50mb  

32. The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru–Chinese documentary about a notorious incident involving a Japanese ship transporting British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan. When it was torpedoed, Chinese fishermen rescued from 380 men...only to watch helplessly as Japan took them back. China's ongoing campaign against its major regional rival, Japan.

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

--30--    

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$66m / $330m worldwide total 

2. Transformers One–$39m worldwide debut 

3. Veteran 2 aka I, The Executioner–$26m / $41m ww  

4. Speak No Evil–$21m / $42m ww

5. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–$20m / $30m ww 

6. Deadpool & Wolverine–$12m / $1.317b ww 

7. Alien: Romulus–$11m / $342m ww  

8. It Ends With Us–$10m / $335m ww 

9. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–$9m / $11m ww 

10. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–$9m / $11m ww 

11. Despicable Me 4–$8m / $948m 

12. The Wild Robot–$7m ww debut 

13. Inside Out 2–$6m / $1.683b 

14. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–$6m / $7m ww 

15. The Substance–$6m ww debut 

16. Stree 2–$4m / $101m  

17. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–$4m / $64m 

18. The Greatest of All Time–$4m /$51m ww 

19. Blink Twice–$4m / $44m 

20. Reagan–$4m / $27m 

21. Am I Racist?–$4m / $9m ww 

22. The Forge–$3m / $27m 

23. Successor–$2m / $475m 

24. The Crow (2024)–$2m / $23m 

25. The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru–$2m / $4m ww  

26. Twisters–$1m / $370m 

27. Trap–$1m / $82m 

28. The Killer's Game–$1m / $4m ww

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is tearing it up...and Halloween is still more than one month away! Folks were surprised Transformers One failed to top the domestic box office. But not us. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice should have really good legs through the end of October. Another point to remember: it's not a competition. The animated Transformers film doesn't need to be #1 on its opening week to be a box office success. It needs $225m worldwide at the box office. And that's going to be very hard to do, especially with The Wild Robot offering direct competition for the animated family fare audience. It really doesn't matter if B2 tripled the gross of T1, not really. But the lower than expected box office did reflect audiences not quite coming for this cartoon the way they (bizarrely) have for the very poorly reviewed live action flicks.  

In Korea, Veterans 2 held well in a very slow market. (India is also barely awake. And China is no better.) To me, the North American box office is fully recovered. People are ready and eager to go to the movies; all exhibitors need are...more movies! All types of movies. But the rest of the world? It seems like a lot of international markets are in a slump. Or is this more about local content? China and India are resistant to Hollywood so if they're not making their own movies, audiences are simply staying home.   

It should be noted that Am I Racist? is doing exceptionally well at the North American box office. It's doubtful this will translate overseas but it doesn't need to do so. It's already tripled a reported $3mb. And $9m is a terrific amount for a traditional documentary film, even one with intended humorous pranks a la Borat. 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies in 2024 than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we have every reason to expect box office back in $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–a reported $100mb and good audience response means this is a winner right off the bat. Hardly a slam dunk, by the way. The original came out almost 35 years ago and only grossed $78m worldwide.  So the sequel cost more than the entire first film's worldwide gross! That's not a recipe for success, normally. But the original only cost $15mb to make and everyone knew it enjoyed a long afterlife, thanks to tv reruns, Halloween, the Broadway musical and so on. Still, gamble it was and the gamble paid off.   

2. Transformers One–a reported $75mb per the trades, though Animation Magazine has a nice feature with the director and producer and offers up $147m for the budget, which is interestingly specific. So, there's that. 

3. Veteran 2: I, The Executioner–A South Korean crime drama often simply called I, The Executioner and sequel to the 2015 hit film Veteran. The original cost $5mb and grossed more than $90m worldwide, so a sequel was inevitable, delayed only by the COVID pandemic. I am assuming the sequel cost $7mb but the numbers are a little unclear. Nonetheless, even if the budget doubled they should be in good shape.

4. Speak No Evil–James McAvoy stars in a horror film costing a reported $15mb. Horror travels well, McAvoy is a draw, the film grossed more than its budget on opening week. Winner! 

5. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–a Japanese animated film opening in China one week before its Sept 19 debut in Japan. The Doraemon franchise is vast and impressive, all based on a manga launched in 1969 about a robotic cat who travels back in time to help a little boy. They churn out new animated films roughly every March, among other properties. Those number more than 40 films and counting. But the Stand By Me movies are a separate thing and the first two were notably more successful than the usual low-budget fare and presumably have a bigger budget. The first grossed about $150m ww and the second about $80m ww, so that's a big step down. Still, they don't rush these out: it's been four years since the second "big" Doraemon film. So we shall see.... 

6. Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb 

7. Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb  

8. It Ends With Us–a $25mb   

9. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–on the other hand, this Chinese comic drama is about a man who takes on a criminal gang of "oil thieves." (Gasoline thieves?) Why? Because their reckless behavior led to an accident that crippled his brother. So the official English title of A Frozen Rage kind of gets to the "taking on the bad guys" idea. But in Chinese it's called Yi Xue Qian Chi and that translates literally to Eat Before Medicine, which WTF? But hey, that lets you know it's more comedy than Erin Brockovich. (At least looking at the poster.)  

10. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–this Chinese drama is about a woman in her 50s who breaks away (from a husband? family?) and starts to live for herself by driving around the country in a "self-guided tour." You know, a road trip. In China it's called Chu Zao de Jue Zin, which translates to Determination to Leave. That works, but the official English title is apparently Like A Rolling Stone, which is terrible and for a moment made me think the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet opened in China first. 

11. Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps  

12. The Wild Robot–no budget reported but given DreamWorks Animation's track record with similar films over the past decade, I'd say $80mb is a reasonable guess. 

13. Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time. 

14. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–drama about a divorced couple battling over who has the right to possess the human embryo they created. 

15. The Substance–$18mb reported for the Demi Moore body horror comeback.

16. Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

17. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.

18. The Greatest of all Time–an Indian Tamil sci-fi movie starring Vijay, it involves rogue clones or something and cost $50mb, a big big number for Indian films. Audiences would need to ignore critics for this one to become a hit. A big second weekend drop of about 60% means that's not happening and the film probably won't be a hit. But Vijay may not care so much: he's left movies and launched a regional political party to push back against the BJP and its fascist attempt to demonize Muslims while ending India's long, great history of secular government. At least, I think that's what he's doing, as far as I can tell.

19. Blink Twice–Usually reported with a $20mb, which sounds right. Though some insist $80mb because of delays.  

20. Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents! 

21. Am I Racist?–With a reported budget of $3mb, this is a right wing documentary mocking efforts to improve diversity in society, focusing on D.E.I. initiatives. It fooled participants a la Borat. And with $9m so far, it's a big hit for a documentary film. (And yes, you are.)

22. The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Success! Reported $5mb.  

23. Successor–Chinese comedy about poor family depending on school-age son for their future. 

24. The Crow (2024)–$50mb  

25. The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru–Chinese documentary about a notorious incident involving a Japanese ship transporting British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan. When it was torpedoed, Chinese fishermen rescued from 380 men...only to watch helplessly as Japan took them back. China's ongoing campaign against its major regional rival, Japan.

26. Twisters–$150mb keeps this from hit territory.  

27. Trap–$30mb and it's at $81m ww so I'm thisclose to calling it a hit. Clearly, the film is another profitable winner for director M. Night Shyamalan.  

28. The Killer's Game–Reported $30mb. An action comedy starring Dave Bautista as an assassin told he has a terminal illness. He hires someone to take him out painlessly, discovers the prognosis was a false alarm but the assassin is determined to take him out anyway. 

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

--30--   

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$118m / $264m worldwide total 

2. Speak No Evil–$21m worldwide debut 

3. Deadpool & Wolverine–$18m / $1.305b ww

4. Alien: Romulus–$17m / $331m ww 

5. It Ends With Us–$16m / $325m ww

6. Veteran 2: I, The Executioner–$15m ww debut

7. The Greatest of All Time–$13m /$47m ww  

8. Coraline–$12m / $185m 

9. Despicable Me 4–$10m / $940m   

10. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–$10m ww debut 

11. Stree 2–$6m / $97m 

12. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–$6m / $60m 

13. Am I Racist?–$5m ww debut

14. Reagan–$4m / $23m 

15. Twisters–$3m / $369m 

16. Trap–$3m / $81m 

17. Afraid–$3 / $11m  

18. The Killer's Game–$3m ww debut 

19. Inside Out 2–$2m / $1.677b  

20. Successor–$2m / $473m 

21. How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–$2m / $51m  

22. Blink Twice–$2m / $40m  

23. The Forge–$2m / $24m

24. The Crow (2024)–$2m / $21m 

25. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–$2m ww debut 

26. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–$2m ww debut

27. God's Not Dead: In God We Trust–$2m ww debut 

28. Pilot–$1m / $32m 

29. Untouchable–$1m / $25m 

30. The Front Room–$1m / $2.6m ww 

31. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–$1m ww debut 

31. All Suspects–$1m ww debut

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is tearing it up...and Halloween is more than one month away! We're going to be singing "MacArthur Park" for a long time to come, which is fine by me. Director Tim Burton is surprisingly dependable at the box office. I say "surprisingly" because creatively he delivers a lot more misses than hits. But commercially? You can trust him to deliver an audience. Even when the film underperforms (Dumbo being the most recent example and, ironically, one of his best artistically), it's not a disaster. The vast majority of his movies triple their budget or come close enough. You have to go all the way back to Mars Attacks! to find a genuine flop. (That cost maybe $80mb or so and grossed $100m.) So definitely let Burton direct what he wants, ideally with a budget around $100m. Your money is safe and chances are you'll do very well indeed. What's the upper limit on B2? $400m? $500m?  

In Korea, Veterans 2 opened very strongly on what was once a big holiday weekend. It made $15m and topped the charts. The bad news is that this wasn't very difficult to do, since the #2 film (a cheap animated film) grossed about $300,000. That's it. So Korea is still desperate for more local films and hits from anywhere. India is having the same problem. Bollywood–the Hindi film industry–is especially hurting with just two hits for the entire year. And the big budget Tamil film The Greatest of All Time is proving to not be the greatest of all time and a certain money-loser. Hollywood films aren't working too well overseas either in these markets; whether they've been given a proper chance in China and India and Korea is another question. 

I had a close call with Coraline. After boldly saying it should be considered a hit since it held on strongly in its second weekend...it started losing screens and such. But the $60mb film is now at $185m after a week where it discovered another $12m.  Had it opened in China? No, so not sure where the money came from. But often box office trickles in slowly from some out of the way places, even in this modern day and age. So it has officially tripled its reported budget and is a hit from theatrical alone. Many films that never show an official profit and never triple their reported budget are actually quite profitable for the studios or Hollywood would have shut down long ago. But it's nice to see a genuinely great movie like Coraline enjoy the wide audience and acclaim it always deserved. 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies in 2024 than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we have every reason to expect box office back in $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–a reported $100mb and good audience response means this is a winner right off the bat. Hardly a slam dunk, by the way. The original came out almost 35 years ago and only grossed $78m worldwide.  So the sequel cost more than the entire first film's worldwide gross! That's not a recipe for success, normally. But the original only cost $15mb to make and everyone knew it enjoyed a long afterlife, thanks to tv reruns, Halloween, the Broadway musical and so on. Still, gamble it was and the gamble paid off.   

2, Speak No Evil–James McAvoy stars in a horror film costing a reported $15mb. Horror travels well, McAvoy is a draw, the film grossed more than its budget on opening week. Winner! 

3. Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb

4. Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb  

5. It Ends With Us–a $25mb   

6. Veteran 2: I, The Executioner–A South Korean crime drama often simply called I, The Executioner and sequel to the 2015 hit film Veteran. The original cost $5mb and grossed more than $90m worldwide, so a sequel was inevitable, delayed only by the COVID pandemic. I am assuming the sequel cost $7mb but the numbers are a little unclear. Nonetheless, even if the budget doubled they should be in good shape.

7. The Greatest of all Time–an Indian Tamil sci-fi movie starring Vijay, it involves rogue clones or something and cost $50mb, a big big number for Indian films. Audiences would need to ignore critics for this one to become a hit. A big second weekend drop of about 60% means that's not happening and the film probably won't be a hit. But Vijay may not care so much: he's left movies and launched a regional political party to push back against the BJP and its fascist attempt to demonize Muslims while ending India's long, great history of secular government. At least, I think that's what he's doing, as far as I can tell.

8. Coraline–$60mb for 2019 3-D classic directed by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gaiman novel. 

9. Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps  

10. Stand By Me: Doraemon 3–a Japanese animated film opening in China one week before its Sept 19 debut in Japan. The Doraemon franchise is vast and impressive, all based on a manga launched in 1969 about a robotic cat who travels back in time to help a little boy. They churn out new animated films roughly every March, among other properties. Those number more than 40 films and counting. But the Stand By Me movies are a separate thing and the first two were notably more successful than the usual low-budget fare and presumably have a bigger budget. The first grossed about $150m ww and the second about $80m ww, so that's a big step down. Still, they don't rush these out: it's been four years since the second "big" Doraemon film. So we shall see.... 

11. Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

12. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.

13. Am I Racist?–With a reported budget of $3mb, this is a right wing documentary mocking efforts to improve diversity in society, focusing on D.E.I. initiatives. And yes, you are. 

14. Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents! 

15. Twisters–$150mb keeps this from hit territory.  

16. Trap–$30mb and it's at $81m ww so I'm thisclose to calling it a hit. Clearly, the film is another profitable winner for director M. Night Shyamalan.  

17. Afraid–$12mb for AI horror flick starring John Cho. 

18. The Killer's Game–Reported $30mb. An action comedy starring Dave Bautista as an assassin told he has a terminal illness. He hires someone to take him out painlessly, discovers the prognosis was a false alarm but the assassin is determined to take him out anyway. 

18. Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time. 

19. Successor–Chinese comedy about poor family depending on school-age son for their future. 

20. How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–Thai weepie about grandson bonding with grandmother after moving in to her home with mercenary intentions. Everyone watching it cries at the end! The film was at $34m worldwide before opening in China. As of this week, it's made $15m in that market. 

21. Blink Twice–Usually reported with a $20mb, which sounds right. Though some insist $80mb because of delays.  

22. The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Success! Reported $5mb.  

23. The Crow (2024)–$50mb  

24. Like A Rolling Stone aka Chu Zao de Jue Zin–this Chinese drama is about a woman in her 50s who breaks away (from a husband? family?) and starts to live for herself by driving around the country in a "self-guided tour." You know, a road trip. In China it's called Chu Zao de Jue Zin, which translates to Determination to Leave. That works, but the official English title is apparently Like A Rolling Stone, which is terrible and for a moment made me think the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet opened in China first. 

25. A Frozen Rage aka Yi Xue Qian Chi–on the other hand, this Chinese comic drama is about a man who takes on a criminal gang of "oil thieves." (Gasoline thieves?) Why? Because their reckless behavior led to an accident that crippled his brother. So the official English title of A Frozen Rage kind of gets to the taking on the bad guys idea. But in Chinese it's called Yi Xue Qian Chi and that translates literally to Eat Before Medicine, which WTF? But hey, that lets you know it's more comedy than Erin Brockovich. (At least looking at the poster.) Don't worry. Both of these films will be gone in a blink. 

26. God's Not Dead: In God We Trust–the fifth (!) film in the faith-based franchise, this time w our hero running for Congress. The first film was a phenomenon, grossing $65m worldwide. The second behaved like a classic, poorly made sequel cash-grab and grossed $25m. The third? $8m. The fourth? $1.1m. Hey, since this grossed $1.8m on its opening weekend, things are looking up? 

27. Pilot–South Korean comedy about male pilot who poses as his sister after scandal so he can fly again. 

28. Untouchable–Chinese crime drama that slipped under my radar. It's made $23m to date after opening on August 23. Gambling, violence, beautiful women...the usual. 

29. The Front Room–horror film starring Brandy as a pregnant woman dealing with the mother in law from hell, perhaps literally. 

30. Enjoy Yourself aka Zhu Ni Xing Fu–$1m ww debut

31. All Suspects–A Chinese comedy mystery a la Agatha Christie. A policeman takes a vacation at a B&B. When bodies begin to pile it, he discovers everyone is both a suspect and a detective. 

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$146m worldwide debut 

The Greatest of all Time–$34m worldwide debut 

Alien: Romulus–$30m / $314m worldwide total 

Deadpool & Wolverine–$29m / $1.287b 

It Ends With Us–$25m / $309m 

Despicable Me 4–$16m / $930m  

Blink Twice–$16m / $38m  

Reagan–$12m / $19m 

Stree 2–$10m / $91m 

Inside Out 2–$9m / $1.675b 

Twisters–$9m / $366m 

Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–$8m / $54m 

The Crow (2024)–$8m / $19m 

The Forge–$6m / $22m 

Successor–$5m / $471m 

Trap–$5m / $78m 

Coraline–$4m / $173m 

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–$4m / $49m 

Untouchable–$4m / $24m  

Detective Conan: Million Dollar Pentagram–$2m / $166m 

Bai She: Fu Sheng aka White Snake: Afloat–$6m / $57m 

Harold and the Purple Crayon–$2m / $27m 

The Hedgehog–$2m / $20m 

The Front Room–$1.6m ww debut 

IM Hero The Stadium–$1.5m / $5m 

Upstream–$1m / $51m 

Pilot–$1m / $31m 

Afraid–$1 / $8m  

1992–$1m / $2.5m 

My Dearest Fu Bao–$1m 

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice enjoyed an excellent opening during the sometimes sleepy week right after Labor Day. It almost set a record, capping off a summer that didn't suck as much as people feared. And what did the trick? All types of movies: superhero franchises like Deadpool & Wolverine, family fare that also leaned on franchises like Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 and unexpected successes like the domestic abuse drama It Ends With Us starring Blake Lively turning into a worldwide smash. And yes, low budget horror flicks, Nicolas Cage freaking folk out with Longlegs, surprising success with reissues like Coraline and rolls of the dice that didn't pan out like Kevin Costner's Horizon and the such. Because it takes all types of films for a healthy box office. You gotta have surprise flops like Horizon if you want surprise hits like It Ends With Us or Longlegs. 

Disney helped. It opened five movies this year, so far, and just passed $4mb worldwide. The lucky films are of course Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Alien: Romulus and The First Omen. All were hits except for The First Omen (part of that absurd over-pay for rights to the Omen franchise) and even it grossed almost $60m on a $30mb and got pretty good reviews. The Mouse House is franchise heavy and not launching originals into the world, but who's complaining? 

Thanks to Variety, I learned Korean concert film IM Hero The Stadium, starring pop idol Lim Young-Woong, was ranked 9th in ticket sales but #2 in grosses in that market, due to premium pricing. Thanks IMAX! In general, though, growing box office by jacking up prices is a bad long-term strategy. 

I had a close call with Coraline. After boldly saying it should now be considered a hit since it held on strongly in its second weekend...it started losing screens and such. But the $60mb film is now at $173m after a week where it grossed another $4m.  As in horseshoes, that's close enough to say yes, it tapped the magical "triple your reported budget if we believe your reported budget is fairly accurate" metric to call a film a hit from theatrical alone. Many films that never show an official profit and never triple their reported budget are actually quite profitable for the studios or Hollywood would have shut down long ago. But it's nice to see a genuinely great movie like Coraline enjoy the wide audience and acclaim it always deserved. 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies in 2024 than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we have every reason to expect box office back in $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–a reported $100mb and good audience response means this is a winner right off the bat. Hardly a slam dunk, by the way. The original came out almost 35 years ago and only grossed $78m worldwide.  So the sequel cost more than the entire first film's worldwide gross! That's not a recipe for success, normally. But the original only cost $15mb to make and everyone knew it enjoyed a long afterlife, thanks to tv reruns, Halloween, the Broadway musical and so on. Still, gamble it was and the gamble paid off.   

The Greatest of all Time–an Indian Tamil sci-fi movie starring Vijay, it involves rogue clones or something and cost $50mb, a big big number for Indian films. Audiences will need to ignore critics for this one to become a hit. But Vijay may not care so much: he's left movies and launched a regional political party to push back against the BJP and its fascist attempt to demonize Muslims while ending India's long, great history of secular government. At least, I think that's what he's doing, as far as I can tell.

Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb 

Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb  

It Ends With Us–a $25mb   

Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps  

Blink Twice–Usually reported with a $20mb, which sounds right. Though some insist $80mb because of delays.  

Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents! 

Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time. 

Twisters–$150mb keeps this from hit territory.  

The Crow (2024)–$50mb  

Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.

The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Reported $5mb.  

Trap–$30mb so it got quite close to hit status and will certainly be profitable thanks to $73m haul. 

Successor–Chinese comedy about poor family depending on school-age son for their future. 

Coraline–$60mb for 2019 3-D classic directed by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gaiman novel. 

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–Thai weepie about grandson bonding with grandmother after moving in to her home with mercenary intentions. Everyone watching it cries at the end! The film was at $34m worldwide before opening in China. As of this week, it's made $15m in that market. 

Untouchable–Chinese crime drama that slipped under my radar. It's made $23m to date after opening on August 23. Gambling, violence, beautiful women...the usual. 

Detective Conan: Million Dollar Pentagram–27th film in Japanese animated franchise. Stood at $128m before opening in China. 

Bai She: Fu Sheng aka White Snake: Afloat–Chinese animated film, threequel to White Snake and Green Snake. 

Harold and the Purple Crayon–$40mb seems suspiciously low, but it's still a flop. 

The Hedgehog–A Chinese drama about a stuttering and rebellious (but hot!) teen and his mentally ill grandfather. Hopefully they'll make a sequel and call it The Fox. 

The Front Room–horror film starring Brandy as a pregnant woman dealing with the mother in law from hell, perhaps literally. 

IM Hero The Stadium–Concert film starring SK singer Lim Young-woong. 

Upstream–Chinese film, I think. Drawing a blank on getting info about this one.  

Pilot–South Korean comedy about male pilot who poses as his sister after scandal so he can fly again. 

Afraid–$12mb for AI horror flick. 

1992–Inspiring film about shop owner fighting to protect his son during LA uprising.  

My Dearest Fu Bao–heart-tugging Korean documentary about the panda Fu Bao that, as will happen, captured the heart of the nation.

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

--30--   

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 1, 2024

 WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 1, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days is followed by its total worldwide gross. 

Alien: Romulus–$59m / $284m worldwide box office 

Deadpool & Wolverine–$47m / $1.258b 

It Ends With Us–$41m / $284m  

Despicable Me 4–$29m / $914m  

Stree 2–$21m / $81m

Inside Out 2–$17m / $1.666b  

Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–$12m / $46m 

Twisters–$10m / $357m 

The Forge–$10m / $16m 

Untouchable–$9m / $20m 

Blink Twice–$8m / $22m   

Successor–$7m / $466m 

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–$7m / $45m 

Borderlands–$7m / $31m 

The Hedgehog–$7m / $18m 

Reagan–$7m debut 

Afraid–$7m debut 

Bai She: Fu Sheng aka White Snake: Afloat–$6m / $57m 

Detective Conan: Million Dollar Pentagram–$5m / $164m 

Coraline–$4m / $169m 

IM Hero The Stadium–$3.5m debut 

The Crow (2024)–$3m / $11m  

Longlegs–$2m / $103m 

Upstream–$2m / $50m 

Harold and the Purple Crayon–$2m / $25m 

1992–$1.6m debut 

City of Dreams (2024)–$1.5m debut 

Trap–$1m / $73m 

Pilot–$1m / $31m  

My Penguin Friend–$1m / $3m 

Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's a good marker to indicate a big hit. 

ANALYSIS 

It's a holiday weekend and a quiet week at the box office, as always. The UK even had its Come To The Movies budget day this week. Maybe Hollywood is waiting until Super Bowl weekend?

It's official: Inside Out 2 is now the highest grossing animated film worldwide in history. Disney tried to insist 2019's remake of The Lion King was not an animated film because it strove to appear photo-realistic. Sorry, they don't get a vote. Toy Story 2 is not a documentary and Titanic is not a musical just because Rose and Jack go dancing and then Celine Dion is heard over the closing credits. 

Here's a reminder about the annual box office. Studios are releasing about 25% fewer movies than they did during the 2016-2019 pre-COVID era. That means we can reasonably expect the annual North American box office to reach about 25% less than that era's average box office. So look for about $8.3b for the year and call that a return to business as usual. Pump up the releases of all types of movies in 2025 and we can expect to be back in the $10b-$11b territory. 

NOTES 

mb= a film's budget in millions of US dollars

Alien: Romulus–a reported $80mb 

Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb  

It Ends With Us–a $25mb   

Despicable Me 4–$100mb, though by now Steve Carell & Co. must be getting serious bumps  

Stree 2–the reported budget varies from $6m to $15m, but with $81m so far, this Hindi supernatural comedy is a hit.

Inside Out 2–$200mb. With $1.666b, it passes 2019's The Lion King to be the highest grossing animated film of all time. 

Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.

Twisters–$150mb keeps this from hit territory.  

The Forge–this faith-based film did better in its second week? Reported $5mb.  

Untouchable–Chinese crime thriller revolving around gambling and tough guys.  

Blink Twice–Usually reported with a $20mb, which sounds right. Though some insist $80mb because of delays.  

Successor–Chinese comedy about poor family depending on school-age son for their future. 

How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies–Thai weepie about grandson bonding with grandmother after moving in to her home with mercenary intentions. Everyone watching it cries at the end! 

Borderlands–$110mb  

The Hedgehog–A Chinese drama about a stuttering and rebellious (but hot!) teen and his mentally ill grandfather. Hopefully they'll make a sequel and call it The Fox. 

Reagan–$25mb for adoring biopic of the President, which is narrated by two former KGB agents!

Afraid–$12mb for AI horror flick.

Bai She: Fu Sheng aka White Snake: Afloat–Chinese animated film, threequel to White Snake and Green Snake. 

Detective Conan: Million Dollar Pentagram–27th film in Japanese animated franchise. Stood at $128m before opening in China. 

Coraline–$60mb for 2019 3-D classic directed by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gaiman novel. 

IM Hero The Stadium–Concert film starring SK singer Lim Young-woong. 

The Crow (2024)–$50mb  

Longlegs–$10mb and grossing $103m so Nicolas Cage deserves every penny he made when the film hit $100m.

Upstream–Chinese film, I think. Drawing a blank on getting info about this one.  

Harold and the Purple Crayon–$40mb seems suspiciously low, but it's still a flop. 

1992–Inspiring film about shop owner fighting to protect his son during LA uprising.  

City of Dreams (2024)–Crushing story of young Mexican boy trafficked to US.  

Trap–$30mb so it got quite close to hit status and will certainly be profitable thanks to $73m haul. 

Pilot–South Korean comedy about male pilot who poses as his sister after scandal so he can fly again.  

My Penguin Friend–A Brazilian film with a French actor Jean Reno performing in English. Of course!

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else discussing box office. 

ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever, depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend and focusing on new releases? 

How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through the cracks but we are as up to date as we can be, given our dependence on other outlets for the basic info. 

First, I list box office on every film we can from around the world. Any movie grossing at least US $1 million will be on here if we get info on it. Then I give some thoughts on the box office overall and individual films. That's followed by notes where I give info on every movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can. 

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