SUNDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: Coming in a touch lower than where we saw it heading yesterday, Marvel Studios/Disney’s Thunderbolts* has opened to $162.1M globally, including $86.1M from the international box office. The worldwide bow is within the pre-weekend projected opening range.
Overseas, the Florence Pugh-starrer launched at No. 1 or No. 1 non-local in nearly all major markets as well as most smaller markets. The international debut is estimated to be 45% ahead of Shang-Chi, 13% above Ant-Man and 7% over Guardians of the Galaxy in like-for-like markets at current rates (excluding China).
The film played best in Latin America and smaller Asian markets while Europe was a bit mixed. Although overall Saturday bumps didn’t pan out as hoped, parts of Europe saw some of the biggest Friday-Saturday increases which reflects the impact of changing weather. Similar to the U.S., reviews and social sentiment internationally are generally strong, and Thunderbolts* has runway before the next major wide opener.
Before we dig into further detail, a note about the other top players: Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie currently stands at $873.4M global after an international weekend of $26.6M (-33%). The overseas total is $475.2M. Also from WB, Sinners had an impressive -27% hold in its third offshore frame. The international cume to date is $57M for $236.7M worldwide.
MORE…
PREVIOUS, SATURDAY: Marvel Studios/Disney’s Thunderbolts* kicked off international box office play on Wednesday, and through Friday has an estimated overseas cume of $47.2M from 52 material markets. The day-and-date global rollout is rolling up to a projected $165M+ through Sunday. This is in line with the pre-weekend estimated range.
As Anthony has noted, the domestic bow now has as a shot at coming in at $73M-$77M.
Overseas, the ragtag bunch of antiheroes is, as a whole, playing best in Latin America, and also scoring in the UK and Asia with projected No. 1s everywhere (outside of Korea and China, which was expected – more on that below).
Note that May 1st was a holiday in many markets – though the UK will take the day off on Monday — while weather in Europe is also a factor.
The well-reviewed Florence Pugh-starrer is hoping to see walk-up business on Saturday and Sunday and thus should finish the weekend within the range we wrote about earlier this week.
The Top 5 markets through Friday are China ($7.1M), Mexico ($4.2M), UK ($3.1M), Brazil ($2.2M) and France ($2.1M).
As expected, we’re not seeing big action in China with the Jake Schreier-directed first installment MCU movie having opened on a non-traditional Wednesday and playing into a competitive frame with lots of new local titles. Through Saturday, the estimated China cume is about $9M (note that today’s numbers are not included in the running total above).
We’ll have a full update tomorrow.
