WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 28, 2024

  WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 28, 2024 

A film's total gross for the entire previous week is followed by its worldwide total to date.

1. Deadpool Vs. Wolverine -- $444m worldwide debut

2. Despicable Me 4 –– $104m/$678m ww

3. Successor -- $100m/$322m ww

4. Twisters -- $85m/$221m ww

5. Inside Out 2 –– $63m/$1,506m ww

6. Longlegs -- $22m/$78m ww

7. A Place Called Silence -- $17m/$176m ww

8. A Quiet Place: Day One –– $13m/$254m ww

9. Under One Person aka I Am Nobody aka The Outcast -- $13m ww debut

10. Raayan -- $9m ww

11. Bad Boys: Ride or Die –– $7m/$395m ww

12. Bad Newz (Indian-Punjab comedy) -- $7m/$11m ww

13. The Count of Monte Cristo – $6m/$46m ww

14. Fly Me To The Moon -- $6m/$37m ww

15. Decoded -- $6m ww debut

16. Your Name (2017 Jap ani) -- $5m/$396m ww

17. Kalki 2898 A.D. –– $5m/$131m ww

18. Blue Lock -- $4m/$17m ww

19. Escape -- $3m/$16m ww

20. Detective Conan: The Multimillion... -- $1m/$126m ww

21. MaXXXine -- $1m/$19m ww

22. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes –– $1m/$397m ww

23. Kinds of Kindness -- $1m/$12m ww

24. Project Silence -- $1m/$5m ww

25. The Fabulous Four -- $1m ww debut

1. Deadpool Vs. Wolverine -- reported $200mb means it's a hit from the start.

4. Twisters -- a $150mb means I'm still not calling this a hit. Wait for the third weekend. 

9. Under One Person aka I Am Nobody aka The Outcast-- this is a Chinese/Japanese collaboration based on a Chinese webcomic about a young man attacked by zombies in a cemetery who discovers the martial arts his grandfather taught him is rare and highly prized and bad people want it. Go! The title variation is due to a Chinese title into Japanese into English, no doubt. "The Outcast" is the subtitle, which ComScore used as the film's title. It was turned into an anime series with five seasons and counting. The film is a live action adaptation. 

10. Raayan -- this is a Tamil action drama from India with a young man training himself all his life to get revenge for the murder of his parents. He gets his chance! 

12. Bad Newz -- the Punjabi comedy is a modest grosser but it's likely the budget was v small too. One more example of how almost every part of the Indian movie business is working except for the Hindi/Bollywood sector. 

13. The Count of Monte Cristo -- this lavish French production pops onto ComScore with $4m, so we get an update on its box office. It's now grossed $46m, which is also the reported budget for the film, the biggest budgeted French film of the year. Like the two-part The Three Musketeers, it enjoys very good reviews but so-so box office. A pity it can't score more worldwide. 

15. Decoded -- a Chinese thriller set during WW II when an autistic math whiz is recruited to break codes for a secret spy agency. 

17. Blue Lock -- this is a Japanese anime film based on a manga about a rigorous program to create the greatest striker in soccer/football history. It opened in Japan in April, now hits China and is set for the US later. The manga has sold 30m copies and won awards, been turned into a three plays (they each ran for last than a week, so how is that a thing?), a prequel novel and an upcoming video game or two. 

24. The Fabulous Four -- it's Bridesmaids for the senior set, with Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph in on the hijinks. 

Bold: movies that have tripled their reported budgets.

This makes them likely hits from box office alone.

ww: worldwide

mb: a film's budget so $50mb means it cost $50m to make.

Below is an analysis of the box office, notes on individual films and at the bottom an explanation of the chart and how it is derived. 

ANALYSIS 

And the highest grossing animated film of all time is...not Inside Out 2. That film is a triumph and indeed  smash hit. But the 2019 version of The Lion King is the highest grossing animated film of all time. Yes, it's designed to look photo-realistic but other than a shot of the sun at the very beginning, it is entirely animated. Pretending it is "different" than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because it looks live action would be like saying Toy Story isn't hand-drawn animation and therefore belongs in a different category than say Pinocchio. They're all animated and the top-grossing animated film of all time is The Lion King (2019) with $1.663 billion. Inside Out 2 is a very impressive #2 with $1.506 billion. Heck, it grossed $63m last week so if it legs out, maybe it will gross another $158m (unlikely, perhaps) and become #1. What would the pundits who got it wrong say then? See, this is why you come here! 

Deadpool Vs. Wolverine set all sorts of records, of course and is off to a terrific start. I'm calling it a hit right off the bat because it opened so strong and has great audience scores and no competition for a while. I am not calling Twisters a hit yet because it got slapped down by DvW and the third weekend hold will tell the tale. It needs to double the box office it's already made to get to $450m and be considered a hit from theatrical box office alone. The movie will be fine financially when all is said and done, but it needs to hold well to score a bold-face win from me.  

We mentioned that Despicable Me is the first animated film franchise to hit $5 billion. So it's only fair to say the MCU–the Marvel Cinematic Universe–hit $30 billion and is the first franchise to do that, not adjusting for inflation. That is hugely impressive and most of the films in the MCU have been hits on their own, a Pixar-level of success rarely seen. It took 34 films, so they're almost averaging $900 million per movie. I would point out that the Despicable Me movies will get close to $7 billion with just six movies, an even more impressive per-film average. And Star Wars? Its 11 live action films grossed about $940m per film. So the MCU has competitors. But can they do it for another 20 to 25 films? Aye, there's the rub. 

Here's one more reminder: people can't go to the movies if you don't release them in theaters. 2024 is scheduled to have 25% fewer releases than 2019 (and roughly 20% fewer than the average number of releases between 2016-2019). That means if it's a normal year, we should expect  the total box office to be about $8.4 billion for North America. That will be a great result. And if we release a good healthy mix of movies in 2025, box office can be right back at $10b to $11b. If you release them, they will come. 

NOTES (info on new movies and international flicks not on most people's radar)

1. Deadpool Vs. Wolverine -- reported $200mb means it's a hit from the start.

4. Twisters -- a $150mb means I'm still not calling this a hit. Wait for the third weekend. 

9. Under One Person aka I Am Nobody aka The Outcast-- this is a Chinese/Japanese collaboration based on a Chinese webcomic about a young man attacked by zombies in a cemetery who discovers the martial arts his grandfather taught him is rare and highly prized and bad people want it. Go! The title variation is due to a Chinese title into Japanese into English, no doubt. "The Outcast" is the subtitle, which ComScore used as the film's title. It was turned into an anime series with five seasons and counting. The film is a live action adaptation. 

10. Raayan -- this is a Tamil action drama from India with a young man training himself all his life to get revenge for the murder of his parents. He gets his chance! 

12. Bad Newz -- the Punjabi comedy is a modest grosser but it's likely the budget was v small too. One more example of how almost every part of the Indian movie business is working except for the Hindi/Bollywood sector. 

13. The Count of Monte Cristo -- this lavish French production pops onto ComScore with $4m, so we get an update on its box office. It's now grossed $46m, which is also the reported budget for the film, the biggest budgeted French film of the year. Like the two-part The Three Musketeers, it enjoys very good reviews but so-so box office. A pity it can't score more worldwide. 

15. Decoded -- a Chinese thriller set during WW II when an autistic math whiz is recruited to break codes for a secret spy agency. 

17. Blue Lock -- this is a Japanese anime film based on a manga about a rigorous program to create the greatest striker in soccer/football history. It opened in Japan in April, now hits China and is set for the US later. The manga has sold 30m copies and won awards, been turned into a three plays (they each ran for last than a week, so how is that a thing?), a prequel novel and an upcoming video game or two. 

24. The Fabulous Four -- it's Bridesmaids for the senior set, with Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph in on the hijinks. 

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

Here's 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 anywhere else discussing box office around the world. 

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during those 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 any movies 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 JULY 21, 2024

 WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 21, 2024 

A film's total gross for the entire previous week is followed by its worldwide total to date.

1. Successor -- $178m/$222m ww 2. Despicable Me 4 –– $136m/$574m worldwide total

3. Twisters -- $124m/$136m ww

4. Inside Out 2 –– $93m/$1,443m ww

5. Longlegs -- $39m/$56m ww

6. A Place Called Silence -- $36m/$159m ww

7. A Quiet Place: Day One –– $20m/$241m ww

8. Fly Me To The Moon -- $12m/$31m ww

9. Your Name (2017 Jap ani) -- $11m/$391m ww

10. Bad Boys: Ride or Die –– $10m/$388m ww

11. Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The World Guardians -- $5m

12. The Count of Monte Cristo – $5m/$25m ww

13. Indian 2: Zero Tolerance -- $4m/$18m ww

14. Escape -- $4m/$13m ww

15. Bad Newz (Indian-Punjab comedy) -- $4m ww debut

16. Detective Conan: The Multimillion... -- $3m/$125m ww

17. MaXXXine -- $3m/$18m ww

18. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1–– $3m/$33m ww

19. Kinds of Kindness -- $2m/$11m ww

20. Handsome Guys –– $2m/$11m ww

21. Into The Mortal World (Chi ani) -- $2m/$4m ww

22. Moments We Shared –– $1m/$71m ww

23. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes –– $1m/$396m ww

24. Hijack 1971 –– $1m/$12m ww

25. A Legend -- $1m/$11m ww

26. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot -- $1m/$11m ww

27. Project Silence -- $1m/$4m ww

NOT TRACKED/LOST TRACK AFTER LAST WEEK:

Kalki 2898 A.D. –– $11m/$120m ww

Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General -- $10m ww

Bold: movies that have tripled their reported budgets.

This makes them likely hits from box office alone.

ww: worldwide

mb: a film's budget so $50mb means it cost $50m to make.

Below is an analysis of the box office, notes on individual films and at the bottom an explanation of the chart and how it is derived. 

ANALYSIS 

And the #1 movie around the world is...Successor. That's a Chinese film, though I'm still not sure what it's about. (The English translation of the title is not helping; too vague, though I'm pretty sure it's not a knock-off of the HBO drama Succession.) In any case, it's a good reminder of why we look at the worldwide box office and totals for the entire week. 

Because the #2 movie around the world is Despicable Me 4, the first animated franchise in history to gross more than $5 billion worldwide. This edition is about to blow past $600m worldwide and will surely hit $900m worldwide, just like the last four in the franchise. 

And so the #3 movie around the world is Twisters, the sequel no one was asking for directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who actually made the marvelous film Minari, a quiet drama he followed up with this. Is Glen Powell a star? Not yet. The star here was the special effects. With these three films and Inside Out 2 becoming the second highest grossing animated film of all time (Yep, the 2019 version of The Lion King is still #1. Sure, it went for a photo-realistic look but it's still animated) and Longlegs a surprise horror hit, one thing is clear. People are absolutely ready and willing to go to the movies. 

Here's one more reminder: people can't go to the movies if you don't release them in theaters. 2024 is scheduled to have 20-25% fewer releases than 2019 (and roughly 20% fewer than the average number of releases between 2016-2019). That means if it's a normal year, we should expect  the total box office to be a little more than $8 billion for North America. That will be a great result. And if we release a good healthy mix of movies in 2025, box office can be right back at $10b to $11b. If you release them, they will come. 

Finally, the French film The Count of Monte Cristo just...reappeared. The most expensive French film of the year so far at $47mb, it debuted to $20m. Last week? Nothing. I could find no box office update anywhere. This week I see a new total of $25m for the film, so I put it back on the chart, though likely it made this money last week. Why the film should collapse so completely is unclear. It received excellent results and is handsomely mounted. This is a dreadful one-two punch for the producers, who also backed the ambitious two-part remake of The Three Musketeers that underperformed worldwide despite excellent reviews. You would think the movies would at least have scored in France but that hasn't been the case. 

LOST TRACK

Two more films are on the Lost Track List. It's highly unlikely either the Indian sci-fi film Kalki 2898 A.D. or the Japanese period war film Kingdom 4 both dropped from $10m/11m to off the charts in just one week. But I can't find any data on either of them. 

NOTES (info on new movies and international flicks not on most people's radar)

1. Successor -- this debuted in China and is presumably a Chinese film of some sort, but it's title is too vague in English (and too similar to the HBO series) for me to figure out which film this is and what it's about. Assuming it's a drama and not a wildly expensive action/period film, it's likely a winner. 

3. Twisters ($175mb) -- Almost all the box office stories ignore the fact that Twisters opened in some markets last week where it grossed $12m. That means when they mention the film's total gross to date, they get it wrong. It wasn't $123m. It was $135m. (On Monday, the actuals were gooses up another $1m, so the final total is $136m) 

6. A Place Called Silence -- Chi crime thriller; almost certainly based on a 2022 Korean film, based on the trailers and plot descriptions. I've no idea of the budget but given the type of film and scale of project, I assume this is a clear box office winner. 

9.  Your Name -- China has been rereleasing Japanese fare for a while as it continues to pivot away from Hollywood fare. This is a 2017 smash hit.

11. Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The World Guardians -- this is the ninth film in a franchise spun off from a TV series. In the show, the goats pleasantly eat grass while avoiding the clumsy wolf that wants to eat them. In the movies, as often as not they band together against outside forces. Sometimes the franchise is translated as Pleasant Goat and Big Gray Wolf.  The movies were trending down a touch, but the last one bounced back up to $20m ww gross and they keep making them so this is clearly in the micro-budget realm for an animated film. 

13. Indian 2 aka Indian 2: Zero Tolerance (Tamil; $36mb) -- It's the sequel to a 1996 film and suddenly we're told to expect it is part two of a trilogy. What took so long? 

14. Escape (SK thriller) -- A soldier in North Korea defects to the south, only to be hunted down by a Javert-like fanatical major.

15. Bad Newz -- This is a Punjabi comedy proving a modest hit for India. Seemingly everyone but the Hindi industry is clicking as movie-going still lags in that market. The story seems quite risqué for that culture. A successful female chef gets a divorce and moves to a new place, has a drunken one-night stand with a man...and that same night reunites and has sex with her ex-husband when he asks to come back into her life! Then she gets pregnant with twins: one from each man she had sex with (that can happen, apparently). What is this, Sex and the City? Presumably this all happens without us ever seeing anyone kiss. 

22. Moments We Shared (Chi drama) -- This is the story of a young man washing out in the big city and returning home to his grandmother's small town, determined to make a go of her canteen. No points for guessing he'll realize he's right where he belongs. Given its scale, this too seems a box office winner. But again, we're just guessing. 

24. Hijack 1971 (K drama) -- Korean drama about the hijacking of an airline...in 1971. Hey, there's no reason to get fancy with a title.

25. A Legend (Chi fantasy drama) -- The legend Jackie Chan stars in an action fantasy in which scientists exploring a glacier find themselves caught up in an ages-old fight between good and evil. Young people seem to carry the bulk of the action in flashbacks, but Chan still brings it, at least in the trailer. 

27. Project Silence (SK disaster film; $13mb) 

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

Here's 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 anywhere else discussing box office around the world. 

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during those 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 any movies 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. 

So here we go....

--30-- 

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 14, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 14, 2024 

A film's total gross for the entire previous week is followed by its worldwide total to date.

1. Despicable Me 4 –– $208m/$438m worldwide total

2. Inside Out 2 –– $133m/$1,350m ww

3. A Place Called Silence -- $69m/$123m ww

4. Successor -- $54m ww

5. A Quiet Place: Day One –– $43m/$221m ww

6. Longlegs -- $26m ww debut

7. Fly Me To The Moon -- $19m ww debut

8. Bad Boys: Ride or Die –– $18m/$378m ww

9. Indian 2: Zero Tolerance -- $14mb

10. Twisters -- $12m ww debut

11. Kalki 2898 A.D. –– $11m/$120m ww

12. Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General -- $10m ww

13. MaXXXine -- $7m/$15m ww

14. A Legend -- $6m/$10m ww

15. Moments We Shared –– $5m/$70m ww

16. Escape -- $5m/$9m ww

17. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1–– $5m/$30m ww

18. Project Silence -- $3m ww debut

19. Handsome Guys –– $3m/$9m ww

20. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot -- $3m/$10m ww

21. The Bikeriders –– $3m/$33m ww

22. Jatt & Juliet 3 –– $3m/$12m ww

23. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes –– $2m/$395m ww

24. The Fall Guy –– $2m/$178m ww

25. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga –– $2m/$173m ww

26. Kinds of Kindness -- $2m/$9m ww

27. If –– $1m/$186m ww

28. Customs Frontline –– $1m/$ 18m ww

29. Hijack 1971 –– $1m/$11m ww

30. Thelma –– $1m/$8m ww

31. Welcome To My Side -- $1m/$6m ww

NOT TRACKED: The Count of Monte Cristo – $20m ww debut

Bold: movies that have tripled their reported budgets.

This makes them likely hits from box office alone.

ww: worldwide

mb: a film's budget so $50mb means it cost $50m to make.

Below is an analysis of the box office, notes on individual films and at the bottom an explanation of the chart and how it is derived. 

ANALYSIS 

Animated films continue to dominate. The Despicable Me franchise became the first animated movie franchise and one of the rare franchises of any type to gross $5 billion worldwide. (This does not include merchandise, by the way. Just box office.) Meanwhile, Pixar's Inside Out 2 is poised to pass Frozen and become the top grossing animated film of all time worldwide. 

In more good news, the horror film Longlegs enjoyed a huge debut, with star Nicolas Cage seeing the biggest opening in some 20 years for a live action film. Those were the salad days of National Treasure and Ghost Rider. Like John Travolta, Cage seems to have nine lives when it comes to popularity at the box office and critical acclaim. Low budget horror movies aren't just money in the bank for their backers. They're also an interesting platform for resurrecting or recharging careers, from Vincent Price with Roger Corman to Ethan Hawke and The Purge and now Cage. 

Kevin Costner might have hoped a big hit TV show would mean his passion project Western Horizon would put him back on top of the box office. After a decent second week hold, the movie slowed down considerably. The theatrical release of Part Two is now delayed so viewers can have a chance to watch the first film in theaters or–more likely–on demand in their homes. If Part Two offers a lot more action than the long setup of Part One, maybe there's hope for this one yet. Still, it's easy to second guess and say a 12 hour movie should have been a miniseries. Surely some streamer would have backed the Yellowstone star's project. 

Fly Me To The Moon is a romantic comedy starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. It's 1969 and she's a pr person hired to stage a fake moon landing in case the real one goes awry. He's the NASA director in charge of Apollo 11. They butt heads...and then fall in love. Stupidly, some suggest this film is a "test" as to whether adults want to go to the movies and whether a film of this sort will work theatrically. Umm,  we have 100 years of evidence adults like to go to the movies and no evidence of some bizarre refusal to ever go to the theater again except for animated fare and Marvel. Has everyone forgotten about Barbenheimer already? The same argument is made whenever a Black person fronts a big budget movie, like the new Captain America starring (to me, the rather dull) Anthony Mackie. Films are tests only of their own quality, audience appeal and such. The dumb part of Fly Me To The Moon is that it has a reported $100m budget. A romantic comedy drama period film about a pr person? You should not spend $100m on that.  

Finally, the French film The Count of Monte Cristo just...disappeared. The most expensive French film of the year so far at $47mb, it debuted to $20m. This week? It might well have dropped by 50%, which would explain why it didn't make ComScore's chart, which only lists the Top 10 films worldwide and this week stops at Bad Boys: Ride or Die at $9.9m. (ComScore really should list all the films it has info on, at least including any movie it can that grossed at least...$5 million? A Top 20?) No word in the trades or Wikipedia or anywhere I could spot with info on how it did. 

NOTES 

3. A Place Called Silence -- Chi crime thriller; almost certainly based on a 2022 Korean film, based on the trailers and plot descriptions. I've no idea of the budget but given the type of film and scale of project, I assume this is a clear box office winner. 

4. Successor -- this debuted in China and is presumably a Chinese film of some sort, but it's title is too vague in English (and too similar to the HBO series) for me to figure out which film this is and what it's about. Assuming it's a drama and not a wildly expensive action/period film, it's likely a winner. 

9. Indian 2 aka Indian 2: Zero Tolerance (Tamil; $36mb) -- It's the sequel to a 1996 film and suddenly we're told to expect it is part two of a trilogy. What took so long?

11. Kalki 2898 AD is a $75m Indian Telugu sci-fi film. It may be the most expensive Indian film (not adjusting for inflation) in history, certainly the most expensive film made in the Telugu language. It's one more sign that the strength of Indian cinema (which is slowly rebounding) stretches way beyond Bollywood (Hindi-language films). 

12. Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General (Jap period war film) -- the fourth in a live action franchise. Budgets aren't mentioned but the first two grossed about $50m and the third $30m, so either these are very inexpensive period war films or someone has lost their mind. 

14. A Legend (Chi fantasy drama) -- The legend Jackie Chan stars in an action fantasy in which scientists exploring a glacier find themselves caught up in an ages-old fight between good and evil. Young people seem to carry the bulk of the action in flashbacks, but Chan still brings it, at least in the trailer. 

15. Moments We Shared (Chi drama) -- This is the story of a young man washing out in the big city and returning home to his grandmother's small town, determined to make a go of her canteen. No points for guessing he'll realize he's right where he belongs. Given its scale, this too seems a box office winner. But again, we're just guessing. 

16. Escape (SK thriller) -- A soldier in North Korea defects to the south, only to be hunted down by a Javert-like fanatical major.

18. Project Silence (SK disaster film; $13mb) 

22. Jatt & Juliet 3 is an Indian Punjabi rom-com. The three films in the Jatt & Juliet franchise are rom-coms starring the same two actors but each is described as a "spiritual" sequel, that is, not necessarily the same characters or storyline. Anyway, the first two became the highest grossing films of all time in the Punjabi language and of course they hope to keep the streak going. 

28. Customs Frontline is a Hong Kong thriller, possibly in previews.  Another action film from HK scores solid numbers, a turnaround since HK films were faring poorly in the mainland of China for awhile. 

29. Hijack 1971 (K drama) -- Korean drama about the hijacking of an airline...in 1971. Hey, there's no reason to get fancy with a title.

31. Welcome To My Side/Huan Ying Lai Dao Wo Shen Bian (Chi rom-comic fantasy) -- A Wacky Chinese comic romance in which a guy has an accident...and starts seeing giant rubber duckies everywhere. Soon everyone around him looks and talks like a giant rubber duckie. Then he spots a beautiful woman who doesn't look like a giant rubber duckie and falls in love. 

THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED 

Here's 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 anywhere else discussing box office around the world. 

The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during those 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 any movies 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. 

So here we go....

--30--