Worldwide box office Nov 24-26
| Rank | Film (distributor) | 3-day (world) | Cume (world) | 3-day (int’l) | Cume (int’l) | Territories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Napoleon (Sony) | $66.7m | $78.8m | $46.3m | $46.3m | 57 |
| 2. | The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes (Lionsgate) | $55m | $197.2m | $26.2m | $98.9m | 88 |
| 3. | Wish (Disney) | $36.8m | $49m | $17.3m | $17.3m | 28 |
| 4. | Across The Furious Sea (various) | $24.5m | $24.6m | $24.5m | $24.6m | 1 |
| 5. | Trolls Band Together (Universal) | $20.6m | $145.8m | $3.1m | $81.3m | 68 |
| 6. | The Marvels (Disney) | $14.3m | $187m | $7.9m | $110.2m | 53 |
| 7. | 12:12 The Day (Seoul Spring) (various) | $11.8m | $12m | $11.8m | $12m | 1 |
| 8. | Thanksgiving (Sony) | $8.6m | $29m | $1.5m | $4.9m | 17 |
| 9. | Five Night At Freddy’s (Universal) | $6.5m | $283.1m | $4.7m | $146.8m | 79 |
| 10. | She Is Magnificent (various) | $5.3m | $7.5m | $5.3m | $7.5m | 1 |
Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.
Sony makes strong start with Ridley Scott’s Napoleon biopic
Apple Original Films’ studio beauty contest entered a new phase at the weekend with the release of Napoleon via Sony Pictures – joining a theatrical market that has already seen Apple’s Killers Of The Flower Moon reach $151.8m globally via Paramount.
Sony can feel satisfied that the opening numbers for Napoleon have come in at the top end of any reasonable expectation, with Ridley Scott’s biographical drama debuting with an estimated $32.5m in North America over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, and a five-day $46.3m in 56 international markets. The numbers combine to deliver an estimated $78.8m opening, topping the global box office chart.
Europe (an estimated $33.0m) dominates the international picture, as might be expected given the film’s setting and subject – Napoleon Bonaparte tore up the map of Europe after a string of military victories, installing family members on foreign thrones and turning territories into client states.
UK/Ireland leads the international pack for the film with an estimated $6.6m over five days, ahead of France ($5.6m), Germany ($3.4m), Spain ($3.3m) and Italy ($3.1m).
Latin America (an estimated $6.5m) is led by Mexico with $2.9m. Australia delivered an estimated $2.6m. Middle East contributed an estimated $2.3m, including $810,000 for top local market Saudi Arabia.
Key territories yet to release include China and Japan (both December 1) and South Korea (December 6).
For comparison, Napoleon’s opening numbers are double Killers Of The Flower Moon and Scott’s own House Of Gucci in like markets at the same stage of release, and is 86% ahead of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.
Apple’s experiment of releasing films theatrically via different studio partners continues in 2024 with Universal Pictures’ release of Matthew Vaughn’s spy comedy Argylle.
Wishes don’t all come true for Disney Animation’s ‘Wish’
After the disappointment of Disney Animation’s sci-fi adventure Strange World last year, the studio appeared to be on much safer ground with Wish – celebrating its centenary year with a fairy-tale that pays homage to past Disney animated classics.
And, to be clear, Wish has opened much stronger than Strange World, which stumbled its way to a $73.6m global lifetime total, spewing a fair amount of red ink onto the Disney balance sheet.
However Wish’s estimated opening – a five-day $31.7m in North America, landing in third place, plus $17.3m for 27 first-wave international markets – won’t have answered the fondest wishes of Disney’s executive team.
Wish inevitably invites comparisons with the two Frozens, since those hit films’ joint directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee are back with Wish – respectively as joint director (with Fawn Veerasunthorn) and joint screenwriter (with Allison Moore). Lee additionally serves as the chief Creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Frozen ($1.33bn worldwide) always presented an absurdly high bar for Wish to aim at, and a more apt comparison may be 2021’s Encanto, which has reached $256.8m to date.
In North America, Encanto opened on Thanksgiving weekend two years ago with a five-day $40.6m (28% ahead of Wish). The two films’ international launches followed different patterns, but Disney estimates that Wish and Encanto are on par in foreign markets released so far.
China leads the international pack for Wish with an estimated $3.5m, ahead of UK/Ireland ($3.0m), Mexico ($2.1m) and Spain ($1.5m). Many key markets are yet to release, including France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Brazil – with dates being staggered to take advantage of local holidays.
Animated and family films released in November for the run-up to Christmas do traditionally achieve strong sustains, with numbers buoyed up by the start of school holidays for the festive season – and Disney’s ardent hope will be that Wish will prove a marathon at the box office, and not a sprint.
‘Hunger Games’ prequel closes in on $200m
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes enjoyed a strong second session at the global box office, adding an estimated $55.0m, and taking the total after two weekends to $197.3m. The film will pass $200m worldwide today.
In North America, the prequel delivered an estimated $42.0m for the five-day holiday weekend, topping the box office, plus $26.2m for international. Respective totals are $98.4m and $98.9m.
The domestic three-day number (an estimated $28.8m) represents a 35% drop from the opening weekend – a solid hold for a franchise title. For international markets, the drop is a steeper 52%.
The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes will need to clear more than $650m worldwide to match any of the four original Hunger Games films – but that box office target probably isn’t in the Lionsgate game plan. With a production budget reported at $100m, the film should be profitable at a significantly lower global box office total, depending on marketing costs. Sequels may follow.
‘Across The Furious Sea’ and ’12.12: The Day’ lead in China and Korea
Across The Furious Sea and 12.12: The Day (aka Seoul Spring) have landed respectively in fourth and seventh places in Comscore’s worldwide box office chart for the November 24-26 weekend.
The former began with an estimated $24.7m, topping the China box office. Across The Furious Sea is a crime drama from Cao Baoping, and is adapted from the novel of the same name published in Fiction Monthlymagazine. The film is the third in Cao’s thematically linked “Heartburn trilogy”, following The Dead End (2015) and Perfect Blue (2022).
12.12: The Day has opened with an estimated $12.0m in South Korea – topping the local box office. The historical drama is set against the backdrop of the December 12 1979 military coup (aka the 12.12 Military Insurrection), which followed the assassination of South Korea president Park Chung Hee in October 1979. Kim Sung-su (Asura: The City Of Madness, 2016) directs. The $12m opening represents the second-biggest for any film so far this year in South Korea, behind action sequel The Roundup: No Way Out, which launched with $22.1m in late May.
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