WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 24, 2024

 WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 24, 2024

A film's gross for the last seven days, followed by its total worldwide gross. I begin with data from 

Comscore and then pull from every other source available. 

1. Wicked–$164m worldwide debut 

2. Gladiator II–$134m / $221m ww 

3. Red One–$35m / $116m ww 

4. Venom: The Last Dance–$20m / $456m ww

5. Her Story aka Hao Dong Xi -- $20m / $21m ww 

6. Hello, Love, Again–$15m / $17m ww

7. To Gather Around aka Sheng Quan Zai Wo aka Brave New World–$10m / $21m ww

8. The Wild Robot–$8m / $317m ww 

9. Crayon Shin-Chan: Our Dinosaur Diary–$8m / $30m ww 

10. Paddington in Peru–$7m / $31m ww 

11. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–$6m / $26m ww 

12. Kanguva–$6m / $15m ww

13. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.–$5m ww debut 

14. Smile 2–$4m / $136m ww 

15. Heretic–$4m / $32m ww 

16. The Substance–$3m / $54m ww 

17. Singham Again–$3m / $45m ww

18. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3–$3m / $45m ww

19. Amaran–$3m / $36m ww

20. Cesium Fallout–$3m / $35m ww

21. Conclave–$3m / $31m ww 

22. The Young Couple Apartment–$3m / $14m ww

23. A Real Pain–$3m / $6m ww 

24. I'm Still Here–$3m / $6m ww 

25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I–$2m / $979m ww 

26. Terrifier 3–$2m / $87m ww

27. Anora–$2m / $22m ww 

28. Hidden Face–$2m ww debut 

29. We Live In Time–$1m / $30m ww 

30. All We Imagine As Light–$1.5m ww debut 

31. The Untold Story–$1m / $16m ww

32. Here–$1m / $13m ww 

33. Small Things Like These–$1m / $5m ww 

34. Hear Me: Our Summer–$1m / $5m ww 

35. Elevation–$1m / $3m 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 

Ok, Glicked was also a forced phenomenon, unlike the truly head-spinning face off of Barbenheimer. In other words, every Thanksgiving and Christmas we see big diverse movies opening up with each expecting to be a hit. So enough with the fancy rivalry/synergy hopes. They're not really in competition with each other: just their own budgets and expectations. And by that measure, Wicked is a hit and Gladiator II needs another week or two to see if it can leg out to $750m worldwide, thanks to a reported $250mb.

The Green One, on the other hand, cost $300m...BUT they split it into two parts and are calling it $150m each. Thanks to critical praise and audience reaction, it looks like the first one alone might gross enough to be cover it. Really, I think it will gross $900m worldwide? Well, that's certainly the vibe and I bet it plays great through Christmas, with maybe another Part 1 sing-along next Halloween and Part Two doing just as well? Less? At that point it won't matter. But really Wicked Part One will be a major success at $450m ww since it delivers as far as audiences are concerned so they can expect the same for Part Two. 

It's always a mistake to actually see a movie when judging its box office or Oscar chances; you let your personal opinion get in the way. So I didn't like the original Gladiator and thought the sequel wasn't remotely as good. That's just me, but the audience was pretty flat when I saw it opening weekend. Yet it's an older person's movie so it too could have a solid, long run. Plus it's a spectacle which should play well worldwide.

Keep this in mind: the original made $450m worldwide. Scott's biggest hit of all time is The Martian at $650m. So Gladiator II will have to gross substantially more than the original and more than his biggest hit of all time just to break even. By our very rough rule of thumb, it needs $750m worldwide. We shall see. (Bright note: adjusting for inflation, the original hit $825m in today's dollars. 

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. Currently, North American box office is at $6.3b, with Thanksgiving and Christmas to go. 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; ww = worldwide

1. Wicked–$150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup marketing. It's a big movie! 

2. Gladiator II–$250mb (?) for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. Whether you think it cost $200mb or $250mb, it's going to be a tough haul for this film to cross $600m worldwide. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have legs? 

3. Red One–Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans action/Xmas comedy. A budget reportedly up to $250mb. 

4. Venom: The Last Dance–$120m reported budget, so even if it collapses quickly, this one will be a winner. With Venom 1 hitting $850m and Venom 2 at just $500m, this is an old school franchise where each new entry seeing less and less interest. They were right to call it a day after #3, clearly. 

5. Her Story aka Hao Dong Xi --Chinese drama, literally translated as "Nice One." Single mom moves in with another single gal; adventures ensue. 

6. Hello, Love, Again–Filipino sequel to Hello, Love, Goodbye from 2019. Debuting w more than $2m at the North American box office, it's notable as the rare Filipino to even get a commercial release in the US. 

The original grossed $17m worldwide, at the time making it the highest grossing Filipino film of all time.  The sequel did not gross $15m this week, but we're playing catchup on its Filipino grosses and more from other countries. The sequel has now made $17m worldwide in 11 days, so it will shortly be the highest grossing Filipino film of all time. 

7. To Gather Around aka Sheng Quan Zai Wo aka Brave New World–Chinese drama about workplace politics. The Chinese title is literally translated as "Guaranteed Victory." In English, it's also referred to as "Brave New World." 

8. 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).

9. Crayon Shin-Chan: Our Dinosaur Diary–A Japanese animated movie that opened there in August and then Hong Kong and Vietnam where it grossed at least $20m and yet it NEVER appeared on my radar! Japan is a market like India where indies don't bother to report grosses to international bodies or companies like Comscore. It's only because the film opened in China and that distributor reported the grosses that we're finding out about it. No idea on the budget, but this isn't Disney or even Miyazaki. So a very good gross, though I'm loathe to call movies hits when I don't have any budget to consider. ($22m before opening in China.)

10. Paddington in Peru–$50mb? I'm just guessing. (That's sort of midpoint between the original and Paddington 2.) Sadly, three times is not the charm artistically for this once-perfect franchise.

11. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–$10mb for this holiday faith-based film based on the gentle 1972 novel. It's a more religiousy A Christmas Story. 

12. Kanguva–Tamil action film reportedly $35-40m. Hugely elaborate via the trailer, with two timelines: one a millennia ago and another in the present. Whatever's going on, our hero is not a reluctant warrior. 

13. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.–a modestly budgeted film about the anti-Nazi martyr which is denounced by his descendants and experts on the life of Bonhoeffer. They say the film distorts his life and teachings to promote Christian nationalism. While the Nazis accused and executed Bonhoeffer for involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler, he had already been imprisoned and there's no evidence linking him to it. Showing him wielding a gun in the poster is one of many reasons the family and others have lambasted the film. 

14. Smile 2–a $28mb, which is a reasonable jump over the $17mb of the original Smile. That film grossed $217m worldwide. This won't get near that, but it doesn't need to do so.

15. Heretic–reported $10mb horror flick starring Hugh Grant as a gent more than willing to invite two Mormons into his home to debate religious beliefs. 

16. The Substance–$18mb reported for the Demi Moore body horror comeback. So I guess despite
all the back and forth on its grosses, this really is a winner now. 

17. Singham Again–Indian/Hindi action film w a $42mb. Fifth in Cop Universe franchise. Last film made $32m. This budget is five times bigger than Singham Return's $8mb. 

18. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3–Indian/Hindi supernatural comedy about a fake ghostbuster. The budget is $18mb. Part 2 made $32m ww total so this needs to do almost twice as much to be a hit from box office alone.

19. Amaran–Indian/Tamil action film. The budget is anything from $15mb to $24mb which is a huge range but I'll err on the side of caution. One of three big films that opened during Diwali festival. 

20. Cesium Fallout–Hong Kong disaster flick starring Andy Lau. A radioactive leak threatens the island. 

21. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means they're likely to have a hit right off the bat. It's at $28m and still going strong, with a boost from potential Oscar noms, assuming they don't rush it to streaming. 

22. The Young Couple Apartment–Chinese film, perhaps a remake of 1987 Chinese film about lives of six young couples all living in same apartment building. 

23. A Real Pain–drama about two cousins on a trip to Poland to honor their late grandmother and tour Holocaust  memorials. Written, directed and starring Jesse Eisenberg w Kieran Culkin as his more free-spirited relative. 

24. I'm Still Here–director Walter Salles drama about a Brazilian woman searching for her missing husband during the dictatorship of Brazil that lasted more than 20 years. Brazil's Oscar hopeful enjoyed acclaim and awards at Venice. 

25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I–the gang is back in action, at least in China where all eight Potter movies are being reissued, one a week. Interest was mild with a handful of early chapters grossing about $5m. Now we're at the two part finale and despite very mild competition, this only grossed $2m. Part I had $977m before its reissue; Part II has $1.342b.

26. Terrifier 3 -- a $2mb! Success, thy name is cheap horror films.

27. Anora–no budget for Sean Baker's latest. But since the most he ever got before is $2mb, I'm assuming this isn't that much. It's opened pretty wide already, so I guess a real platform throughout awards season won't happen? A shame not to let this play into March 2025 where Conan O'Brien can give Anora her flowers. Still, it's already doubling The Florida Project, which made $11m off a $1mb. 

28. Hidden Face–Korean drama about woman leaving her partner. Her lover starts a new relationship, but they feel they're being watched.... 

29. We Live In Time–Andrew Garfield/Florence Pugh drama about a decades-spanning romance. Looks like another sleeper success for director John Crowley a la Brooklyn. 

30. All We Imagine As Light–Indian film played at Cannes and was generally lauded. 

31. The Untold Story–Chinese romance about lovers separated by death. A literal translation of the Chinese title would be The Unknown Story. 

32. Here–a reported $50mb? My foot! Robert Zemeckis. Tom Hanks. Robin Wright. That's $50m right there, practically! Still, even if it did cost $50m and they all took scale for a big backend, this still doesn't look to be profitable. But maybe they'll love it overseas! That's why you bring in stars like Tom Hanks. Though I imagine few will cross the uncanny valley. 

33. Small Things Like These–low budget Cillian Murphy drama about worker faced with knowledge of nuns treating young women abusively. Backed by Ben Affleck/Matt Damon production company. 

34. Hear Me: Our Summer–Korean romance about a super-cute hearing impaired young woman and a super-cute delivery boy falling for each other. 

35. Elevation–reported $18mb for sci-fi action film starring Anthony Mackie. Man and two women determined to rescue little boy. 

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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