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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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 17, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 17, 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. Gladiator II–$87m worldwide debut 

2. Red One–$55m / $82m ww total

3. Venom: The Last Dance–$42m / $436m ww

4. The Wild Robot–$17m / $309m ww

5. Heretic–$12m / $28m ww

6. Paddington in Peru–$12m / $24m ww 

7. To Gather Around aka Sheng Quan Zai Wo–$11m ww debut 

8. Amaran–$9m / $33m ww

9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–$9m / $20m ww

10. Kanguva–$9m ww debut 

11. Smile 2–$8m / $132m ww 

12. Anora–$8m / $20m ww 

13. Terrifier 3–$7m / $85m ww

14. Cesium Fallout–$7m / $32m ww

15. Conclave–$6m / $28m ww 

16. We Live In Time–$5m / $29m ww 

17. The Substance–$4m / $51m ww 

18. The Untold Story–$4m / $15m ww

19. The Young Couple Apartment–$4m / $11m ww

20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince–$3m / $937m ww 

21. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3–$3m / $42m ww

22. I'm Still Here–$3m / $4m ww 

23. Here–$2m / $12m ww 

24. Small Things Like These–$2m / $4m ww 

25. Hear Me: Our Summer–$2m / $4m ww

26. A Real Pain–$2m / $3m ww 

27. Hello, Love, Again–$2m ww debut 

28. Her Story aka Hao Dong Xi -- $1.5m ww debut

29. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$1m / $451m ww 

30. Joker: Folie à Deux–$1m / $206m ww 

31. Singham Again–$1m / $42m ww

32. Road to Ninja: Naruto The Movie–$1m / $22m 

33. The Apprentice -- $1m / $12 ww

34. Amazon Bullseye–$1m / $4m ww 

35. Absolution–$1m / $3m ww

36. Elevation–$1m / $2m ww

37. Devils Stay–$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 

Ok, now it's getting serious. The North American box office needs $1.3b just to cross the $8b mark for the year. That would be a reasonable goal given how few films have opened. (We'll be down 25% in wide releases so box office will likely be down 25%, if we're lucky.) The problem with this thinking is that fewer movies allow people to get out of the habit entirely. Well, that won't be much of a problem for the rest of the year. We're going to have big movies most every week from now through New Year's. 

Up first? Red One. This would be Christmas action-comedy wants to be a staple like Die Hard. It opened poorly (though audiences liked it) and analysts can't decide if they should call it a flop or grade on a curve because Amazon doesn't care about box office. Uh huh. First, when you spend $250mb on an action film starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, you'd be crazy not to give it a theatrical release. Look how much more valuable Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be for years to come thanks to being a worldwide smash (and a hit, based on its more modest budget). Are folks saying if Red One went straight to streaming it would be a winner? If people don't like a movie, avoiding a theatrical release won't make them like it more. But let's not jump the gun. The movie looks like it won't do that well. Still, it's got a long way to go and maybe the Christmas theme will give it unexpected legs. The audience scores are fine. Declaring a movie dead on opening week (or two) doesn't always make sense. Nonetheless, when you spend that much money on a big action film, it better  work theatrically. And sending it straight to your streamer won't hide that fact. So a flop is a flop. 

Also, folks are calling this the first Christmas-themed major studio release since 2018. Well, it's certainly the first $250mb Christmas-themed movie by anyone ever. But let's not forget 2019's Last Christmas (the romantic drama that took the Wham! hit's lyrics way too literally) or 2022's Violent Night, from Universal with David Harbour as a kick ass Santa. Both were hits and cost about $30mb, which is a decent budget historically for a holiday themed film. Just saying. 

Gladiator II has made exactly the same amount worldwide and it cost the same amount. It's also been indifferently received by critics, yet no one is rushing to declare it D.O.A. I guess it helps when part I won the Best Picture Oscar. We shall see....

I'm thrilled for the success of Anora, one of the best films of the year. It and Conclave are both performing very well but I just like Anora more. (Sorry.) Things are really heating up with Wicked next week and Moana 2: The TV Series Turned Movie the week after that. Thanksgiving should be very interesting. 

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. 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? 

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

3. 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. 

4. 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).

5. 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. 

6. 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 for this once-perfect franchise.

7. To Gather Around aka Sheng Quan Zai Wo–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. 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. 

9. 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. 

10. 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. 

11. 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.

12. 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. 

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

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

15. 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. 

16. 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. 

17. 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. In a Nov. 17, 2024 story for Deadline extolling the film's success and the streamer MUBI, they claim the film has a worldwide gross of $66.5m. 

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

19. 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. 

20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince–the gang is back in action, at least in China where all eight Potter movies are being reissued, one a week. The later films seem to be grossing around $5m total, so this was hardly worth the bother, unfortunately. Before hitting China, the final films grossed the folllowing: Deathly Hallows I at $977m; Deathly Hallows II at $1.342b. 

21. 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.

22. 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. 

23. 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. 

24. 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. 

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

26. 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. 

27. 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. 

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

29. 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. 

30. Joker: Folie à Deux–a reported $190mb. This won't come close to $600m worldwide, so I'm afraid it's a flop. I think I announced in advance it would do very, very poorly. But I would never have guessed it would struggle to pass $200m ww. 

31. 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. 

32. Road to Ninja: Naruto The Movie– 2012 Japanese anime reissued in China. It was at $18m worldwide before its reissue in China in 2024. 

33. The Apprentice -- with a $16mb, you can spin this either way politically. Liberals can say people didn't want to see the film because they're sick and tired of Trump. So he'll lose. Right wingers can say people didn't want to see a film that criticized in any way their beloved ruler. So he'll win. Both side-ism! 

34. Amazon Bullseye–Korean sports comedy w a one-time archery medalist recruiting Amazon people w amazing archery skills and brings them back to Korea. Hilarity ensues. 

35. Absolution–yet another Liam Neeson action film. This time he's a tired, aging gangster who wants out. 

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

37. Devils Stay–Korean horror film. Young woman dies after exorcism, but her heart specialist father thinks she's still alive. 

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 NOVEMBER 10, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 10, 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. Venom: The Last Dance–$77m / $394m worldwide total 

2. Red One–$27m worldwide debut

3. The Wild Robot–$23m / $292m ww 

4. Singham Again–$19m / $41m ww

5. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3–$19m  / $39m ww

6. Heretic–$16m ww debut 

7. Smile 2–$14m / $124m ww 

8. Cesium Fallout–$12m / $25m ww

9. Paddington in Peru–$12m ww debut 

10. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–$11m ww debut 

11. The Untold Story–$11m ww debut 

12. Amaran–$9m / $24m ww

13. Conclave–$7m / $22m ww 

14. Anora–$6m / $12m ww 

15. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$5m / $450m ww

16. Here–$5m / $10m ww 

17. The Substance–$4m / $47m ww

18. The Young Couple Apartment–$3.5m / $7m ww

19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix–$3m / $945m ww 

20. Joker: Folie à Deux–$3m / $205m ww

21. Terrifier 3–$3m / $78m ww 

22. Road to Ninja: Naruto The Movie–$3m / $21m 

23. We Live In Time–$2m / $24m ww 

24. Small Things Like These–$2m ww debut

25. Hear Me: Our Summer–$2m ww debut

26. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire–$1m / $902m ww 

27. It Ends With Us–$1m / $349m ww

28. Transformers One–$1m / $129m ww 

29. The Forge–$1m / $40m ww

30. The Apprentice -- $1m / $11 ww

31. Look Back–$1m / $7m ww 

32. Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom–$1m / $7m ww 

33. Amazon Bullseye–$1m / $3m ww 

34. Absolution–$1m / $2m ww

35. Elevation–$1m ww debut

36. Leon–$1m ww 

37. 1984–$1m ww debut 

38. I'm Still Here–$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 

Venom: The Last Dance is still living it up worldwide. This week it makes $77m and passes the $400m mark worldwide. The competition is about to get fierce, so it's probably going to fall hard now. But since Venom made $856m and Venom 2 made $507m, seeing the third in a poorly reviewed, unexpectedly successful franchise probably end up close to $500m as well is a big win. Plus the price is right at $120m though presumably Tom Hardy is reaping the rewards. Writer-director Kelly Marcel delivered the goods commercially. 

It's weird to think of a Christmas action flick franchise. But that's the idea behind Red One starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. I mean, you might as well zig when others zag since people wanting a holiday action film can't watch Die Hard all the time. This is clearly off to a very poor start. given its massive budget. Someone will start yelling about the dangers of launching a new franchise with no big IP, but where else are original films supposed to come from? 

Meanwhile, The Wild Robot can expect one or two sequels. They've got that many books at least, to build on. 

China and Korea remained slumbering but India had a good week. All three films of the big films that launched during Diwali enjoyed strong holds. Unfortunately, Singham Again is so expensive at $42mb, it's unlikely to be a hit. But the Tamil actioner Amaran is already a winner and another good week will make the Hindi language supernatural comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 a winner as well. 

Hugh Grant is having fun (as he has for years, to those paying attention), classing up the horror flick Heretic and popping up with an uncredited cameo in Paddington in Peru. Unfortunately, the perfection of Paddington 2–as expected–was not matched with Paddington in Peru. That shouldn't stop this threequel from being a hit, but since I don't know the budget let's wait to see how it shapes up first. Match or exceed the second and it'll be a safe bet as having succeeded. 

I imagine the box office performance of Here starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wrights gives studio execs nightmares. Two notable stars, a very commercial director, crowd-pleasing sentimentality and yet people just ran in the opposite direction. You never know, but sometimes the audience does, instinctively.

NOTE: L'amour Ouf aka Beating Hearts was at $27m as of the week ending November 3, 2024. It made $11m that week. And now it's off the charts entirely? After a great hold? This makes no sense.  I'll see if it pops up in any worldwide coverage, but shenanigans may be taking place by inventive producers. Shenanigans, I say!

This is what I wrote about it last week: In France and Belgium, L'Amour Ouf, one of the worst reviewed films in competition at Cannes, is doing well. It made $11m last week and another $11m this week, which is great. One problem: the budget is a reported $39mb. (Why, I have no idea. It's about a decades-long romance between wrong side of the track teenagers.)

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. 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. 

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

3. 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).

4. 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. 

5. 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. 

6. 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. 

7. 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. 

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

9. 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 for this once-perfect franchise. 

10. 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. 

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

12. 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. 

13. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means they're likely to have a hit right off the bat. But I don't want to jump the gun on a film at $22m and needing $60m for me to bless it as a theatrical winner. In any case, it's sure to be profitable and a good addition to someone's library. But is it really an Oscar hopeful?  I have my doubts but it's been a weak year.... 

14. Anora–no budget for Sean Baker's latest. The total is for several weeks in limited release, of course. But it hit the Top 10 in North America with $886k and another $100k plus in the UK so I'm calling it as $1m ww this week. Small movies can be difficult for me to track, but this genuine Oscar hopeful will one imagines become Baker's top-grosser to date when all is said and done. 

15. 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. 

16. 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. 

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

18. 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. 

19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix–the gang is back in action, at least in China where all eight Potter movies are being reissued, one a week. The later films seem to be grossing around $5m, so this was hardly worth the bother, unfortunately. Before hitting China, the final films grossed the folllowing: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now at $942m; Half Blood Prince at $934m; Deathly Hallows I at $977m; Deathly Hallows II at $1.342b. 

20. Joker: Folie à Deux–a reported $190mb. This won't come close to $600m worldwide, so I'm afraid it's a flop. I think I announced in advance it would do very, very poorly. But I would never have guessed it would struggle to pass $200m ww. 

21. Terrifier 3 -- $23m ww debut on a $2mb! Success, thy name is cheap horror films. 

22. Road to Ninja: Naruto The Movie– 2012 Japanese anime reissued in China. It was at $18m worldwide before its reissue in China in 2024. 

23. 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. 

24. 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. 

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

26. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire–see #19. 

27. It Ends With Us–a $25mb reported budget means this was a monster win, yet one of the most fraught success stories around.  

28. 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. 

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

30. The Apprentice -- with a $16mb, you can spin this either way politically. Liberals can say people didn't want to see the film because they're sick and tired of Trump. So he'll lose. Right wingers can say people didn't want to see a film that criticized in any way their beloved ruler. So he'll win. Both side-ism! 

31. Look Back–Chinese animated film about two girls who bond over their love of manga and work on one together. 

32. Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom–Japanese anime based on "light novel" about player trapped in video game when the online, multiplayer role-playing game is shut down and he is seemingly transported to the world of the game in the form of his avatar.

33. Amazon Bullseye–Korean sports comedy w a one-time archery medalist recruiting Amazon people w amazing archery skills and brings them back to Korea. Hilarity ensues. 

34. Absolution–yet another Liam Neeson action film. This time he's a tired, aging gangster who wants out. 

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

36. Leon–on China's box office chart. No info. 

37. 1984–Chinese drama. No clear info available, though I'm pretty sure it's not based on the George Orwell novel. 

38. 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. 

NOTE: L'Amour Ouf– aka Beating Hearts. A reported $39mb. Off the charts. See Analysis. Translates as literally "Love, Phew" but in English they're calling it Beating Hearts. A Belgian drama about teen lovers torn apart by gang violence. In competition at Cannes, but widely panned as the worst of the bunch. But in France and Belgium, it had a sensational hold, grossing $11m two weeks in a row so maybe this will pay off.

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 NOVEMBER 3, 2024

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 3, 2024

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

1. Venom: The Last Dance–$142m / $317m worldwide total

2. The Wild Robot–$37m / $269m ww

3. Smile 2–$26m / $110m ww 

4. Terrifier 3–$22m / $75m ww 

5. Singham Again–$22m worldwide debut 

6. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3–$20 ww debut 

7. Amaran–$15m ww debut

8. The Unseen Sister–$13m / $23m ww 

9. Cesium Fallout–$13m ww debut 

10. L'amour Ouf aka Beating Hearts–$11m / $27m

11. We Live In Time–$10m / $22m ww 

12. Conclave–$8m / $15m ww 

13. Juror No. 2–$5m ww debut 

14. Here–$5m ww debut 

15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire–$4m / $901m ww 

16. Transformers One–$4m / $128m ww

17. The Substance–$4m / $43m ww

18. Anora–$4m / $6m ww

19. The Young Couple Apartment–$3.5m ww debut 

20. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice–$3m / $445m ww 

21. The Apprentice -- $3m / $10 ww

22. The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death–$2m / $165m

23. Look Back–$2m / $6m ww 

24. Amazon Bullseye–$2m ww debut

25. I Am The Secret In Your Heart–$2m ww debut 

26. Deadpool & Wolverine–$1m / $1.338b ww

27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban–$1m / $813m ww

28. It Ends With Us–$1m / $348m ww 

29. Joker: Folie à Deux–$1m / $202m ww 

30. High Forces–$1m / $42m ww 

31. Panda Plan aka Project Panda–$1m / $42m ww 

32. The Forge–$1m / $39m ww 

33. Love in the Big City -- $1m / $6m ww

34. A Normal Family–$1m / $4m ww

35. Absolution–$1m ww debut

36. Leon–$1m 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 

Venom: The Last Dance is enjoying a strong run at the worldwide box office, thanks to no competition in North America and a very healthy run in China. That's exactly how Hollywood should see the fickle, sometimes impenetrable market of China. It's not the goal and can't be catered too, since you are never guaranteed a release, much less easy access to any profits. So keep it in mind and if the movie plays there, great! Just don't depend on it. 

The Wild Robot is showing great legs, as expected. It is absurd for DreamWorks to be marketing it online when they should let this play and play. It actually grew at the North American box office this week. Horror flicks like Smile 2 and Terrifier 3 are printing money, with Hugh Grant in Heretic coming up next. But in 2025, they will finally hit maximum horror with too many titles scheduled to come out. 

In India, the Diwali holiday was an excuse for three big films to come out: Singham Again, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Amaran all hit theaters as broad appeal flicks (the first an action flick, the second a supernatural comedy, the third another action flick). They'll each need to show good legs to be considered hits, because all films represent pretty big budgets. But at least Bollywood (the home of the first two Hindi language films and the sleepiest of India's powerhouse film hubs) is showing signs of life. Did they spend too much money to do it? We'll probably know by next week. 

In France and Belgium, L'Amour Ouf, one of the worst reviewed films in competition at Cannes, is doing well. It made $11m last week and another $11m this week, which is great. One problem: the budget is a reported $39mb. (Why, I have no idea. It's about a decades-long romance between wrong side of the track teenagers.)

In North America, Conclave had a solid hold, though I still don't see it as Oscar bait. But the new Robert Zemeckis film Here reuniting Tom Hanks and Robin Wright from Forrest Gump was D.O.A., pleasing neither critics nor audiences. (The graphic novel it's based on is terrific, though.) Still, Zemeckis is always pushing technology and anyone who made Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Beatlemania delight I Wanna Hold Your Hand can rest easy. 

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood's new directorial effort slunk into theaters (they didn't even report grosses). Netflix is taking it to streaming but promised an Oscar qualifying run. The joke is on them since it's one of his better reviewed movies and might easily have minted some money for the streamer. And pay attention to We Live In Time. It's a weepie and showing good traction. 

Piece by Piece opened on October 11 and quickly ran out of steam. Eighteen days later it was available premium online. I'd be fine with it available for basic rental one month after it was released. It's down to 500 screens and grossing about $350,000. Can't everyone agree when exhibitors are done showing a movie and it's falling fast that studios can and should capitalize on the marketing to make it available online? And when a movie like The Wild Robot is showing legs, they should not push it online. Is that so hard? 

Anora is positioned like a classic of its type at the box office–an Oscar-hopeful, platforming wonder. If we're lucky, the movie will play and play and we'll be talking about it for months to come. 

NOTE: More shenanigans around The Substance? Two weeks ago, the worldwide total was $42m. Last week, suddenly folks are saying $42m? Oh, we meant $39m. This week? It's back to $43m. Go figure. 

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

1. 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. 

2. 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).

3. Smile 2–a $28mb, which is a reasonable jump over the $17mb of the original Smile. That film grossed $217m worldwide. With this one grossing well over the film's budget on opening weekend, it's a clear box office winner. I would LOVE someone to develop a quick and easy guide to how wide a film opens worldwide. A simple pie chart showing what percentage of the worldwide market a movie has already opened in would be awesome. Smile 2 grossed $23m from North America alone. That's about, what, 20% of the worldwide market? With China another 17%? 15%? (Even if a movie never opens there or expects to make much less or nothing in that market.) Smile 2 opened in 36 countries. But Kuwait, the Netherlands and Ukraine (!) probably don't add up to 1% of the worldwide market. Is this opening 40% of the worldwide total? 60%? I don't know but it would be very useful to measure this based on the previous year's worldwide box office and the contributions of each market. Anyway, Smile 2 will certainly  hit $84m worldwide even if it collapses hard and is a hit. 

4. Terrifier 3 -- $23m ww debut on a $2mb! Success, thy name is cheap horror films. 

5. 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. 

6. 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. 

7. 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. 

8. The Unseen Sister–a Chinese drama that I think is about a successful actress whose sister comes back into her life after many years off the radar. It's based on a novel and the Chinese title is Qiaoyan's Thoughts so naturally it's been changed for Western audiences so people don't have to stumble over how to pronounce the name Qiaoyan. On my podcast I always strove to hear a proper pronunciation and did my best, but that habit fell by the wayside. But I looked it up and the phonetic way to say the same seems to be Chow-yune. 

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

10. L'Amour Ouf–a reported $39mb. Tranlsates as literally "Love, Phew" but translated as Beating Hearts. A Belgian drama about teen lovers torn apart by gang violence. In competition at Cannes, but widely panned as the worst of the bunch. But in France and Belgium, it had a sensational hold, grossing $11m two weeks in a row so maybe this will pay off. 

11. 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. 

12. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means they're likely to have a hit right off the bat. Give it another week and we'll know for sure. Is it really an Oscar hopeful? I have my doubts but it's been a weak year.... 

13. Juror No. 2–roughly $35mb for director Clint Eastwood's newest drama.

14. Here–a reported $50mb? My foot! Robert Zemeckis. Tom Hanks. Robin Wright. That's $50m right there, practically!

15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire–the reissue in China for all the films brought in $4 on the opening week for this entry...and that neatly put it over $900m ww. Here are the rest of the films in the franchise and where they stand before their reissue: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now at $942m; Half Blood Prince at $934m; Deathly Hallows I at $977m; Deathly Hallows II at $1.342b 

16. 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. 

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

18. Anora–no budget for Sean Baker's latest. The total is for several weeks in limited release, of course. But it hit the Top 10 in North America with $886k and another $100k plus in the UK so I'm calling it as $1m ww this week. Small movies can be difficult for me to track, but this genuine Oscar hopeful will one imagines become Baker's top-grosser to date when all is said and done. 

19. 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. 

20. 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. 

21. The Apprentice -- with a $16mb, you can spin this either way politically. Liberals can say people didn't want to see the film because they're sick and tired of Trump. So he'll lose. Right wingers can say people didn't want to see a film that criticized in any way their beloved ruler. So he'll win. Both side-ism! 

22. 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. 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, for reporting purposes so it doesn't seem so big. The total is $240m or so for three films, I believe, 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 is almost out of steam at $165m. A big gamble that did not pay off, since they'll be lucky to double the budget at the box office. 

23. Look Back–Chinese animated film about two girls who bond over their love of manga and work on one together. 

24. Amazon Bullseye–Korean sports comedy w a one-time archery medalist recruiting Amazon people w amazing archery skills and brings them back to Korea. Hilarity ensues. 

25. I Am The Secret In Your Heart–Taiwanese film of young romance, sneak preview in China before 11-9 open.

26. Deadpool & Wolverine– a $200mb is just fine when you're the highest grossing R-rated film in history. 

27.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban–all of the films seem to be grossing between $6m and at the maximum $12m, so this is just a modest addition to hugely profitable films. 

28. It Ends With Us–a $25mb reported budget means this was a monster win, yet one of the most fraught success stories around. 

29. Joker: Folie à Deux–a reported $190mb. This won't come close to $600m worldwide, so I'm afraid it's a flop. I think I announced in advance it would do very, very poorly. But I would never have guessed it would struggle to pass $200m ww. 

30. 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! The film is set for a North American release. 

31. 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. 

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

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

34. A Normal Family–Korean drama based on the Herman Koch novel about two families meeting to discuss what to do about a violent crime their children did together. 

35. Absolution–yet another Liam Neeson action film. This time he's a tired, aging gangster who wants out. 

36. Leon–on China's box office chart. No info. 

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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