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
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.
17. Chong Sheng aka Go For Broke–Chinese drama about undercover cop in drug gang.
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
26. Twisters–$150mb keeps this from hit territory.
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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