World box office October 28-30
| Rank | Film (distributor) | 3-day (world) | Cume (world) | 3-day (int’l) | Cume (int’l) | Territories |
| 1. | Black Adam (Warner Bros) | $66.7m | $250.1m | $39m | $139m | 77 |
| 2. | Ticket To Paradise (Universal) | $12.9m | $119.4m | $2.9m | $85.7m | 79 |
| 3. | Smile (Paramount) | $12.1m | $186m | $7m | $93.6m | 63 |
| 4. | Pray For The Devil (various) | $11.4m | $11.5m | $4.3m | $4.5m | 63 |
| 5. | Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Sony) | $8.8m | $50.6m | $6m | $18m | 41 |
| 6. | Halloween Ends (Universal) | $7.5m | $94.7m | $3.7m | $34.3m | 77 |
| 7. | Home Coming (various) | $5.3m | $204.6m | $5.3m | $204.6m | 5 |
| 8. | The Woman King (Sony) | $2.9m | $87.3m | $1.8m | $22.7m | 39 |
| 9. | Till (United Artists Releasing) | $2.8m | $3.6m | N/A | N/A | 1 |
| 10. | Terrifier (various) | $2m | $7.9m | $0.2m | $0.2m | 1 |
Credit: Comscore, click top right to expand. All figures are estimates.
‘Black Adam’ dominates with $67m second session
Warner Bros’ Black Adam continued to dominate the global box office in its second weekend of release with estimated takings of $66.7m – more than the rest of the worldwide top 10 put together.
Black Adam is seeing international markets increasingly pulling ahead of domestic North America – with an estimated $39.0m for the former at the weekend, and $27.7m for the latter. Respective cumulative totals are $139.0m and $111.1m, combining for $250.1m worldwide.
That number means that Black Adam is already the 12th biggest global hit of 2022, after just two weekends of play – just ahead of animation The Bad Guys ($248.0m) and actioner Bullet Train ($239.2m).
Black Adam fell 45% in international holdover markets, and continued to top the box office in more than 60 countries. UK/Ireland leads the way, both for estimated weekend takings ($4.0m) and cumulatively ($15.3m).
France, where the film enjoyed a particularly strong hold (down 19%) comes next for weekend takings (estimated $3.2m), but its cumulative total is below both Brazil ($8.4m) and Mexico ($8.2m).
For the opening weekend, Brazil had ranked third among international territories for Black Adam (behind UK/Ireland and Mexico), but slipped to fifth place for the second session (behind UK/Ireland, France, Mexico and Australia). The presidential run-off on Sunday may have provided distraction. In Brazil, Black Adam nevertheless dominated at the weekend with a 74% share of the top five films.
Since Warner Bros and DC Films had initially intended Dwayne Johnson to play Black Adam as a villain in its Shazam! film, before switching strategy, Shazam! seems an obvious comparison title for box office. Shazam! grossed $140.5m in North America and $225.6m for international over its lifetime in 2019, combining for $366.1m worldwide. Black Adam has already reached 68% of that total, after two weekends of play.
Black Adam arrives in Japan on December 2. A China release date has yet to be set.
‘Prey For The Devil’ is top new title – with $11.5m
With Black Adam, Ticket To Paradise and Smile all unchanged as the top three at the global box office, the highest new entry arrived in fourth place: Lionsgate’s release of Prey For The Devil.
The exorcism-themed horror film debuted with an estimated $7.0m in North America and $4.5m in 62 international territories, combining for $11.5m worldwide. UK/Ireland contributed around $1.0m of the international total.
German-born director Daniel Stamm (2010’s The Last Exorcism) directs Prey For The Devil, from a screenplay by Robert Zappia (1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later). Jacqueline Byers stars as a nun who becomes the first female student at an exorcism school reopened by the Catholic church, which previously trained only male priests.
The Last Exorcism grossed $69.4m worldwide over its lifetime – also for Lionsgate. Sequel The Last Exorcism Part II (directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly) disappointed with $25.1m in 2013.
‘Ticket To Paradise’ passes $100m; ‘Smile’ nears $200m
Holding steady in second place at the global box office, Universal’s Ticket To Paradise added another estimated $12.9m to its tally: $10.0m for North America (in its second weekend of release) and $2.9m for international. Last week, Ticket To Paradise passed the $100m box office milestone, and has now reached $119.4m.
While romantic comedies used to be a staple of the Hollywood studio release calendar, they have become rather an endangered species in recent years, at least on the big screen. Rare hits include Crazy Rich Asians, which reached $238.8m in 2018.
The landscape for the romantic comedy has altered since the days when Ticket To Paradise star Julia Roberts ruled the genre, delivering hits My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill and Runaway Bride during the years 1997-1999. Worldwide grosses for those titles were respectively $299.3m, $363.9m and $309.5m.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s Smile added another estimated $12.1m at the weekend, and has now reached $186.0m. This profitable hit is clearly headed for $200m-plus by the end of its run.
Smile has now overtaken Nope ($170.8m) to become the top original-IP US horror film of the pandemic era. Its box office total lags behind two horror franchise titles for the pandemic period: Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II ($297.4m) and Warner Bros’ The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ($206.4m).
Belgian hit ‘Zillion’ tops country’s box office
Local films are surging at the Belgian box office, led by Kinepolis Film Distribution’s release of nightclub thriller Zillion, which released last Wednesday and tops the latest box office, ahead of US studio hits Black Adam and Smile.
Indie Sales launched sales on the title at European Film Market in February this year. Created by controversial tech entrepreneur Frank Verstraeten, Zillion was one of the first mega-clubs that sprang up in Benelux in the late 1990s, before closing in 2002. Jonas Vermeulen (Red Light) stars as Verstraeten. Robin Pront directs, following his earlier two features The Ardennes (2015) and The Silencing (2020).
Zillion currently dominates the Belgian box office – delivering around one third of total admissions for the top 20 films since release last week.
Also in the Belgian top 10 are Belgian documentary Our Nature (aka Onze Natuur) and local drama Rebel – both likewise distributed by KFD. The former film, which celebrates Belgium’s own wild animals, has racked up a hefty 120,000 admissions since release on September 21. The latter comes from Belgian duo Adil El Arbia and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys For Life), and tells the story of a young Muslim boy targeted by radical recruiters. Rebel premiered in Midnight Screenings at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
This week will see the release in both Belgium and France of Lukas Dhont’s Close – the Cannes Competition drama that has been submitted by Belgium as its entry to the international feature film Oscar. Diaphana Films releases Close in France, and Lumière in Belgium.
Australia boosts ‘Mrs Harris Goes To Paris’
The arrival of Mrs Harris Goes To Paris in Australia saw the Universal release receive a boost at the weekend, pushing the international total so far to $8.3m, which adds to $10.4m for North America. The Australia opening yielded $1.4m including previews – the lion’s share of the estimated $1.9m reported for the film at the weekend in 36 international markets.
This coming week sees Mrs Harris Goes To Paris arrive in France and South Korea (November 2) and Mexico (November 3), with key markets Germany, Italy, Japan, Brazil and Spain all to follow.
Lesley Manville stars in the title role of the 1950s-set romance-tinged comedy drama about a cleaning lady who heads to Paris on a quest to buy a Christian Dior couture frock. Anthony Fabian’s film is based on the novel series by Paul Gallico.
No comments yet