UPDATE: Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 has topped the half-century mark globally, now with $503.5M worldwide. Of that, $318.5M is from the international box office. Passing $500M makes KFP4, directed by Mike Mitchell (and co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine), only the fourth animated title to the benchmark since 2020, joining Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie($1.4B) andMinions: The Rise of Gru($943M), andSony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse($691M).
Overseas, the return of Po & co is now the highest grossing film in the franchise in 37 markets including Mexico ($35.2M) and Brazil ($8.1M). The series of films recently topped the $2B mark globally to become the 7thhighest grossing animated franchise of all time. DWA has the most animated franchises to the $2B milestone worldwide with Shrek ($3.972B), Madagascar ($2.257B), and now KFP ($2.3B).
Related Stories
News of KFP4’s achievement (more on that to come below) arrives amid a wave of global milestones as Warner Bros/Legendary’s Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire crossed $700M and $500M, respectively, this frame.
In new play, Universal’s Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt-starrer The Fall Guy started early at overseas turnstiles with $8.7M from 38 markets. The David Leitch-directed action-romcom, and ode to stunt performers, landed with No. 1s in Australia, Netherlands and several others.
Warner Bros’ Zendaya-led drama, Challengers, from MGM, expanded into 51 more markets serving up $9M in the frame for a running $10M international cume after hitting the court in Australia and New Zealand last weekend (the drop for those was just 21%). With domestic’s No. 1 debut, the movie is at $25M global so far.(See below for more on Fall Guy and Challengers.)
The offshore weekend winner however hailed from Korea with The Roundup: Punishment positively dominating the market at a share of over 90% since Wednesday’s opening. The full frame came in at $29.4M per Kobiz. The Don Lee actioner sold about 4.25M tickets from Wednesday-Sunday and on Saturday became the fastest film to cross 2M admissions this year.
The top studio movie of the weekend internationally was Godzilla x Kong with estimated$14.9M in 78 markets during the frame — another good hold of -45%. Internationally, the monsters are at $337.7M for $519.3Mworldwide through Sunday.
New this session was Japan, home to Godzilla and distributed by Toho there. GxK came in No. 2 behind the second frame of local title Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram. Results are ahead of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (+7%), Dune (+85%) and Dune: Part Two (91%).
Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($125.9M), Mexico ($32.1M), UK ($16.9M), India ($14.6M) and Australia ($11.7M).
As for KFP4, it added $11.7M internationally this session in 82 markets for a 31% drop. The offshore performance to date, excluding China, is in line withZootopiaand aboveHow to Train Your Dragon 3 and Kung Fu Panda 2 at the same point of release. Also, excluding China, KFP4 has surpassedKFP3andSing 2 internationally.
The Top 5 markets: China ($48.5M), Mexico ($35.2M), UK ($24.4M), Germany ($15.8M) and Australia ($14.7M).
Also from Universal, The Fall Guy kicked off early overseas as we head into the May 1 holiday and before its domestic debut. I was lucky to be in Spain, one of the two majors where it released this session, and a Saturday afternoon crowd applauded and stayed for the credits.
As noted above, the weekend was good for $8.7M in 38 markets and is coming in above The Lost City and just off Bullet Train in the same markets and excluding previews.
Australia was a No. 1 opening with $2.9M across 132 screens, aboveBullet TrainandThe Lost City.The release capitalized on Thursday’s Anzac Day holiday, and 40% of schools are also on holiday this week. Here in Spain, a $1M opening was a clear No. 1 and aboveThe Lost CityandMad Max: Fury Road.In the Netherlands there was also a No. 1 start.
Israel, releasing into Passover, saw Thursday deliver thebiggest opening day of 2024with $400K which marks thebest non-animated opening weekend of the year(excluding previews). The start is aboveJohn Wick: Chapter 4andThe Lost City, and more than doubleBullet Train.
Other No. 1s include Ukraine, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
The Top 5 so far are: Australia ($2.9M), Spain ($1M), Netherlands ($556K), New Zealand ($435K) and Hong Kong ($381K).
There are many markets to come next weekend including Germany, France, Korea, Italy, Brazil, Mexico and the UK. China goes on May 17 and Japan on August 16
Slicing back to Challengers, the weekend was worth $9M, as noted above, from 6,344 screens in 52 markets. This is an Amazon MGM Studios title distributed internationally by Warner Bros.
In the UK, the Luca Guadagnino-directed movie ranked No. 1 with $1.8M; roughly on par with Poor Things as well as higher than Battle of the Sexes (+212%), Licorice Pizza (+227%) and Call Me By Your Name (+513%).
Another 12 markets open next week includingBelgiumandHolland,withJapanbeing the final market to open on June 7th.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (SNY): $5M intl weekend (60 markets); $80.6M intl cume/$188M global
Spy x Family Code: White (SNY/CR): $3.4M intl weekend (31 markets); $5M intl SNY cume/$12M global
Abigail (UNI): $2.6M intl weekend (65 markets); $9.9M intl cume/$28.6M global
The First Omen (DIS): $2M intl weekend (51 markets); $31M intl cume/$50.2M global
Back to Black (UNI): $1.1M intl weekend (31 Universal markets); $4.6M UNI intl cume
Monkey Man (UNI): $831K intl weekend (33 markets); $7.8M intl cume/$31.7M global
Oppenheimer (UNI): $399K intl weekend (majority Japan); $642.3M intl cume/$972.2M global
