UPDATE, writethru: The latest rerelease of James Cameron’s Titanic 3D has buoyed the big boat movie to $2.217B globally, meaning it still stands as the No. 3 worldwide release of all time. Right in its wake, Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has now reached $2,213.5M, still the fourth biggest movie ever and less than $4M from Titanic through Sunday. It will overtake Titanic, it’s just a matter of when.
Last session, Way of Water had cruised past Titanic internationally for the No. 3 spot of all time overseas, and holds onto that crown after this weekend with $1.567B through Sunday.
Either way, Cameron was indeed king of the (box office) world this frame, with $22.3M from the Titanic reissue (Paramount has domestic and Disney overseas) as well as $25.8M for 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Way of Water.
At the international box office, Avatar 2 had a 35% drop in 52 material markets for an additional $18.9M. It is still the No. 1 non-local title in France, Germany, Spain and several others. The Top 5 grossing markets are China ($242.6M), France ($144.9M), Germany ($135M), Korea ($106.9M) and the UK ($89.7M).
In IMAX, Avatar 2 has crossed $250M global at $252.2M in the final weekend of its record-setting run. The international cume is $164.6M, which includes $52.2M from China, the 2nd highest IMAX result ever in the market.
Meanwhile, Titanic rode a new 3D wave a little over 25 years after it first premiered. The international portion of the session was $15.9M from 51 markets, including No. 1s in Italy, Belgium, Bosnia, Slovenia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Central America. Elsewhere, it debuted in the Top 4 in many markets including Korea, Japan, India, Spain, Mexico, the UK, Australia, France, Germany and Brazil. The Top 5 booking passage were Korea ($2.5M), France ($1.6M), Mexico ($1.2M), UK ($1M) and Japan ($1M). IMAX generated $2M globally, including $1.6M from offshore.
This is all in advance of Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania buzzing into cinemas globally this coming week, including a day-and-date February 17 release in China. As a table setter for Marvel films to return to that market after a long dry spell, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever rolled out in the PRC starting February 7 and grossed $12M across its extended opening session. The market is crowded with run-off from Chinese New Year: at an estimated RMB 4.24B ($624M), Zhang Yimou’s Full River Red is about to overtake Avengers: Endgame’s lifetime China gross while The Wandering Earth II has done $538M through Sunday (inlcuding $49.2M in IMAX to become the format’s biggest local-language result ever). Wakanda Forever was never expected to be a litmus test for Marvel’s return. The international cume is now $401.4M for $855M global.
Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish just keeps purring along as it nears $400M global. The offshore weekend was good for $12.1M in 80 markets (-33%) to tally a $235.2M running cume. Worldwide, the total to date is $393.7M. The sequel is now the 3rd biggest animation of the pandemic, and this session topped Black Adam to become the 11th biggest studio release of 2022 internationally and 12th biggest global. Excluding China, the film continues to be above Sing 2 and in line with Sing and How To How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World at the same point.
After a strong debut last session, the UK kept Puss at No. 1 as it passed the lifetime of Encanto with $11M to date. Brazil, Mexico and France have been standouts while Argentina pushed Puss to become the 2nd biggest animated title of all time (only behind Universal’s own Minions: The Rise of Gru), as well as the 6th biggest film ever.
Top 5 markets to date are Mexico ($23.6M), France ($20.1M), Germany ($16.1M), Brazil ($14.8M) and Australia ($14M).
In new play, and also starring Puss in Boots‘ Salma Hayek, Warner Bros’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance bowed to $10.4M from 41 offshore markets for an $18.6M worldwide debut. As we often see on U.S. comedies, the top overseas plays were in Germany, the UK and Australia. Germany’s $1.9M at No. 2 was on par with Ticket to Paradise, and ahead of The Lost City by 39%. The UK also scored $1.9M at No. 2, ahead of the Titanic rerelease, on par with Magic Mike and above Hustlers by 15%. Australia grossed $1.7M and knocked Avatar out of the No. 1 slot.
Bollywood record-breaker Pathaan also continued its strong run this weekend. Yash Raj Films reported Sunday the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer had hit $112.7M global (comScore has it slightly higher, at $115.9M – we will clarify when final weekend numbers are tallied). The actioner has reached $3.6M worldwide in IMAX to become the 2nd highest-grossing title ever in the format.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Babylon (PAR): $4.1M intl weekend (58 markets); $41M intl cume/$56.4M global
Knock at the Cabin (UNI): $3.9M intl weekend (65 markets); $13.3M intl cume/$36.8M global
A Man Called Otto (SNY): $2.8M intl weekend (46 markets); $34.8M intl cume/$92.2M global
M3GAN (UNI): $2.1M intl weekend (76 markets); $74.7M intl cume/$165.6M global
Tar (UNI): $1.2M intl weekend (26 markets); $7M intl cume/$13.4M global