WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 2, 2025
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. Ne Zha 2–$446m worldwide debut
2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$260m worldwide debut
3. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$128m ww debut
4. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–$78m ww debut
5. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$60m ww debut
6. Dog Man–$41m ww debut
7. Operation Hadal–$34m / $35m ww total
8. Mufasa: The Lion King–$26m / $653m ww total
9. Paddington in Peru–$20m / $93m ww
10. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$16m /$463m ww
11. Companion–$15m ww debut
12. Moana 2–$11m / $1,037b ww
13. Babygirl–$11m / $48m ww
14. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$10m / $50m ww
15. One of Them Days–$10m / $35m ww
16. Flight Risk–$9m / $25m ww
17. Hitman2–$9m / $13m ww
18. Nosferatu–$6m / $172m ww
19. The Brutalist–$6m / $18m ww
20. Conclave–$5m / $87m ww
21. Dark Nuns–$5m / $13m ww
22. A Complete Unknown–$4m / $78m ww
23. Presence–$4m / $7m ww
24. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–$3m / $133m ww
25. Wicked–$2m / $719m ww
26. Honey Money Phony–$2m / $64m ww
27. Wolf Man–$2m / $30m ww
28. Finist. The First Warrior–$2m / $26m ww
29. Better Man–$2m / $19m ww
30. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog–$3m / $5m ww total
31. Secret: Untold Melody–$2m ww debut
32. Gladiator II–$1m / $461m ww
33. Big World–$1m / $110m ww
34. Harbin–$1m / $32m ww
35. Brave The Dark–$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
It's the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake is is supposed to be inauspicious. But a snake may become the new mascot for the worldwide box office thanks to the massive wave of moviegoers in China. From Wednesday January 29 through Sunday February 2, the Chinese box office alone grossed almost $1 BILLION. To be exact, it hit $965.4m. Wow. True, the Chinese gov't subsidized ticket sales by $83m, but that's less than 10% of the total gross over five days, so it was money well spent.
And they did it the old fashioned way: lots of sequels! The third in the animated Ne Zha-verse, the fourth in a buddy comedy series, the second in a fantasy trilogy shot all at once a la Lord of the Rings, a fantasy based on a classic tale and the eleventh in the Boonie Bears kiddie franchise. This is very good news for the moribund Chinese box office; let's hope it keeps going.
Back in Hollywood, we've got an original film: the animated family flick Dog Man. Well, yes, it's based on a series of graphic novels (14 and counting) and yes it's a spin-off of the Captain Underpants graphic novels and yes that led to a hit film and a TV series and yes, it's true Dog Man has also spun-off another series of graphic novels called Cat Kid Comic Club and yes, you'd be placing a losing bet if you said they'd surely never turn that into a movie. But still, it's an original film! Sort of. Anyone who thinks Hollywood makes too many remakes and sequels and spin-offs based on pre-existing stories or that people are tiring of them need only refer to...the entire history of Hollywood, including the silent era.
For Oscar hopefuls, The Brutalist and A Complete Unknown and Conclave are capitalizing on their nominations. Maybe Emilia Pérez is as well, but we won't know it's streaming numbers leading up to the Oscars for a few weeks.
Oh and box office doesn't just come from massively budgeted tentpole films. A lot of smaller films are scoring at the box office, proving the talent of directors, building stars, giving a boost to writers and so on. Those numbers add up. So high praise for Dog Man grossing its budget on opening week, Paddington in Peru approaching $100m, Companion proving a commercial and artistic hit, Babygirl making clear it will triple its budget as it continues to play around the world, One of Them Days proving the same and Nosferatu and The Brutalist and Conclave and Soderbergh's Presence all proving hits.
A Complete Unknown isn't there yet, but it's doing well and all of these films will over-perform once they hit the homes via streaming and rental and cable and on demand and yes BluRay and the like. Mid-sized and small budget movies are crucial to a healthy box office. Captain America: Brave New World will open strongly on Valentine's Day, but the box office isn't just sitting around waiting for a new blockbuster. It's revealing talent, creating hits and priming the pump for home entertainment. Anyone looking to shrink windows even further is being foolish. And anyone spending $100mb to make a movie and not giving them a theatrical release is losing out. Now let's wake up India and Korea!
NOTES
mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide
1. Ne Zha 2–Reported $80mb. Chinese animated fantasy sequel to the 2019 smash which cost about $20m and grossed $743m. A spin-off film Jiang Ziya was hobbled by COVID but grossed $243m. Now the direct sequel Ne Zha 2 cost $80m and our spunky heroine (based on a famed mythological character around for centuries) takes on sea monsters. The series is based on Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin from the 16th century.
2. Detective Chinatown 1900–$125mb at least? This is the fourth in a wildly popular buddy comedy mystery series. Think oh, Rush Hour? 48 Hours? Each film cost more than the one before and grossed more. Since we're on film #4 and it's a period movie set in San Francisco, it's safe to assume this cost more than the #3, which cost $117m and grossed $686m worldwide. I mean, $150mb is probably more realistic, at least. Assuming this doesn't collapse in week two, $500m and profitability is assured. Oh and clues in this one indicate the next film in the series will be set in London. So, Detective Chinatown 1920, here we come.
3. Creation of the Gods 2: Demon Force–$110mb? Creation of the Gods is a live action fantasy trilogy that was shot all at once over an 18 month period, a la Lord of the Rings. Since the first part cost $110m, presumably parts two and three cost at least as much, though their initial releases were delayed because of time-consuming special effects. And guess what? Like Ne Zha 1 and 2, this too is based on Investiture of the Gods, making Ming dynasty author Xu Zhonglin the hottest scribe in town. Yes, there are a handful of English translations of the tales, but none of a single professional review and only one even has a handful of reader reviews, so I would be wary. And I'm still waiting for a good translation of the epic from which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was drawn.
4. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants–No budget available. A wuxia martial arts period adventure film written and directed by the legendary Tsui Hark. It's based on part of the novel of the same name by Jin Yong.
5. Boonie Bears: Future Reborn–$50mb? This once low budget animated franchise keeps getting bigger and bigger at the box office. Film #9 grossed $220m and #10 grossed $270m.
6. Dog Man–A reported $40mb. It's always good to gross your budget on opening week. Plus, the books are funny, the reviews are good, the audience response is great and it has the rest of the world to open in. So get ready for Dog Man 2.
7. Operation Hadal–$150mb. In director Dante Lam's Chinese action film, mercenaries have taken over a deep sea platform in Chinese waters and well, the Chinese Navy is not about to take that lying down. It's a sequel to Operation Red Sea which cost $70m and grossed almost $600m. This cost twice as much and looks like it will struggle to gross half as much. Not good.
8. Mufasa: The Lion King–$200mb
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 artistically for this once-perfect franchise. This week the film had conflicting info. Comscore says the film grossed $6m this weekend...but the movie's overall take jumped by $23m from $60m to $83m? Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo claim its total jumped $13m to $73m. That extra $7m from Monday to Thursday is more believable so I'll go with that for now.
10. Sonic The Hedgehog 3–$120mb
12. Moana 2–Is the budget lower since it was intended for tv, at first? Or higher because they had to rethink everything? Disney says it cost $150mb, just like the original. You can bet Dwayne Johnson gets more than his share of coconuts, but that won't matter with a hit like this.
13. Babygirl–$20mb for this Nicole Kidman sexy drama about a powerful businesswoman finding her kink with a younger, dominating man..her intern, no less! No milk was harmed in the making of this movie.
14. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$40mb for Gerard Butler action flick.
15. One of Them Days–$14mb. It's always good to gross your budget during a film's opening week. So yea for producer Issa Rae and this comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. (What a week for SZA! Her movie opens well and she makes my list of The 250 Best Albums of the 21st Century...So Far.
20. Conclave–a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means this is a hit. It's at $60m and still going strong, with a boost from potential Oscar noms. I do not see the point in putting it on PVOD and flooding the market with bootlegs while potentially harming box office. This is exactly the sort of film that can play and play in theaters.
21. Dark Nuns–Korean supernatural thriller w two nuns working together to save a boy seemingly possessed by a demon while protecting the sanctity of their order. It's a spin-off of The Priests aka Black Priests, which came out in 2015 and grossed $36m. Why it took a decade to capitalize on the first film is a mystery itself.
22. A Complete Unknown–$60mb+ for this Bob Dylan biopic? That's a lot of money for a film about Dylan going electric at Newport. I mean, I want to see it but then I'm a Dylan fanatic. Off to a very good start and star Timotheé Chalamet is sure to get an Oscar nomination, so it should keep going. But $180m worldwide seems highly unlikely to me, if not impossible. (Do other countries give a toss about this? Is Chalamet a big enough draw for this story? I doubt it.) I'm glad it was made, but it was made for too much. Like Gladiator II, this will be seen as a commercial success, but it's not.
23. Presence–$2mb for retired director Steven Soderbergh's first of two movies out in 2025.
25. Wicked–$150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup marketing. It's a big movie!
27. Wolf Man–$25mb
28. Finist. The First Warrior–a Russian fantasy film starring actor Kirill Zaytsev as "the strongest, most agile, and handsome hero of Belogorye," according to Wikipedia. Zaytsev certainly fits the bill, though since Belogorye currently has fewer than 3000 people, that may not be such a major claim. Russians are surely starved for homegrown cinema; it's been a while since Russian films made the charts. But I couldn't even find a trailer for it on YouTube.
29. Better Man–$110mb!!! I just gasped when I saw the budget. Oh dear. I love the craziness of this movie. But that's a LOT of money for such a nutty idea. And forget the nutty idea. It's a musical biopic about an artist whose music I really like but has virtually no profile outside the UK. For heaven's sake, Queen is one of the biggest acts in the world and their biopic cost literally half of this one. Better Man would have been a big gamble at $30mb.
30. The Three Investigators: Carpathian Dog–This German light mystery is the second live action film in a reboot of the teen investigators that are perennial favorites in kids lit in that country. It's spun-off from the series of books published in the 1960s-1980s in the US, all branded as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" but created by Robert Author, with the first nine books of 40+ in all also written by him. Basically, it's the Hardy Boys but with three kids instead of two. The series remains well known in Germany, where even more books were written to meet demand. And now it's a film series.
31. Secret: Untold Melody–SK drama remake of a Taiwanese weepie about a pianist whose career is cut short by tragedy...but he finds comfort from a time-traveling woman.
32. Gladiator II–$250mb for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. It needs $750m worldwide for me to call it a hit from theatrical alone but $600m would be just fine. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have legs? No, it does not. This is the sort of film that everyone thinks of as a hit, but actually didn't deliver. The talk of Gladiator 3 is nonsense. Maybe many years from now they'll use the name to launch a new franchise, but this is the end for now.
33. Big World–$29m ww debut. Chinese drama starring pop star and actor Jackson Yee as a young man living with cerebral palsy. Yee has gone from boyband TFBoys to having the Mandarin song of the year in 2017 to success in TV and film. How's his English, asks Hollywood?
34. Harbin–A South Korean historical drama set in the early 1900s about rebels fighting against the Japanese occupation of Korea. When one rebel leader shows mercy to Japanese prisoners and his men pay the price, he vows to redeem himself by assassinating the first Prime Minister of Japan. So this one will probably not have a good run in Japan.
35. Brave The Dark–no budget for presumably very low cost faith-based indie film about the importance of performing arts programs?
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 each movie, with a focus on films not from Hollywood. So Despicable Me 4 you know. But a small Korean comedy or French drama? That I'll identify for you as best I can.
--30--
No comments:
Post a Comment