With no new wide Hollywood tentpole releases until October, we’re in a period of holdovers, and local titles excelling in their home markets (and beyond), while Top Gun: Maverick continues to soar and there’s a will it or won’t it question mark over Jurassic World Dominion‘s shot at getting to $1B global.

Overall, it was a fairly active weekend at the international box office, with Germany in particular seeing uplift on a handful of titles — Constantin’s Guglhupfgeschwader is still No. 1 there after three frames.

For Hollywood, Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru saw a 37% increase in Germany this session ($29.8M cume) and led all of international play at $26.7M in 83 offshore markets including debuts in China and Italy. The overseas cume is $483.6M, in line with Minions and Despicable Me 3. Global is $833.6M.

On Friday, Gru and the crew landed the biggest opening day of the pandemic for an animated title in China; impressive since the Chinese authorities handed out the date just 11 days prior. Ultimately, Rise of Gru grossed $11.8M for the weekend. It was up against a new local animated entry, New Gods: Yang Jian (which won the frame at RMB 134M/$19.6M). Gru has strong social scores and is the second-highest Hollywood debut for an animated title during the pandemic.

Rise Of Gru is the only Hollywood film releasing in China of late — and for the foreseeable future — while an estimated 17% of locations (including 25% of Shanghai cinemas) are currently still closed due to Covid restrictions. There are two more weeks of school holiday, and we’re told that schools are demanding families take precautions to help stop the spread before children return to classrooms.

In Italy, the origins story opened on Thursday with an 86% share, grossing $1.6M from 446 cinemas. Excluding previews, this was the biggest Universal pandemic opening day, and the 4th biggest Universal opening day of all time as well as the 3rd biggest of the pandemic. The weekend cume of $6.1M (including previews) is line with the opening of Despicable Me 3. Rise Of Gru is on track to become the biggest Hollywood animation of the Covid era in Italy.

France was up 6% ($22.7M to date) and the UK was flat with a $48.8M running tally (in line with Minions and DM3 at the same point).

Sony’s third weekend of Brad Pitt-starrer Bullet Train saw a good dip at just -29% internationally for a weekend total of $12.1M in 61 overseas markets. The offshore cume is $81M with global reaching $150M.

Germany saw a 9% increase while the UK dropped 4%. France and Australia were down just 25% and 29%, respectively, as they held the top spots in their third weekends of release. Korea and Italy launch next weekend followed by Japan on September 1.

In other Sony news, a combination of Sony Pictures Releasing International and Crunchyroll markets got their first look at Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero this session with $12M from 29 overseas. Of that, the Sony-owned Crunchyroll clocked $535K in Australia and $117K in New Zealand. SPRI markets contributed $11.2M with No. 1s across the board in Latin America. Mexico launched to $3.7M, and Argentina did $1.5M. In Europe, the UK grossed $800K, and the Netherlands added $150K. The Middle East delivered $420K as a region. The worldwide weekend in those overseas markets and North America was $32M. 

Super Hero originally opened in June in Japan, grossing about $18M. Upcoming key markets include Germany, Spain, Korea, Italy and France.

Crunchyroll will also be releasing Toei’s One Piece Film: Red in North America, Australia and New Zealand this fall. The anime franchise’s 15th feature is already the highest grossing of the series in Japan, now with an estimated 9.28B yen ($68M) after releasing on August 6.

Sticking with Japan, this could be the swing market on Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion. Currently at $984.7M through Sunday globally, the movie released in Japan as the last of its majors four weekends ago. The market tends to leg out and is currently doing the bulk of the work with holdovers still contributing. This frame was worth a little over $3.14M overall, with $2M from Japan where it has grossed $37.2M to date, performing in line with Fallen Kingdom at the same point and surpassing the lifetime of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

So does it get to $1B? It’s not a lock, but it’s also not out of the realm of possibility. If the dollar were not quite so strong, JWD would already be across the mark.

Universal’s Nope will go to Japan next weekend. This frame it rolled out in 38 further markets with new openers grossing $5.5M. The total session including a 37% drop from holdovers was good for $9.4M. The offshore cume is $19.3M with global at $133M. Korea was the major debut at $2.2M for the biggest horror launch of the year. Spain started off with $640K and Netherlands $448K, in line with Get Out. The UK has cumed $5.5M to date, followed by France at $2.4M and Australia with $2.3M. Mexico and Brazil are also on deck this week.

As reported earlier, Top Gun: Maverick, continues to fire in many majors — including significant week-on-week increases in Germany and the UK. The weekend as a whole was $8.7M in 63 markets for $720M international and $1.403B globally.

Warner Bros’ DC League Of Super-Pets woofed up $6M in 70 markets this session for a 23% drop. As with elsewhere, there were increases in a number of markets including France (+6%), Netherlands (+17%) and Germany (+47%). The UK, Brazil and Mexico saw soft drops. The international running cume is $62.9M for $130.4M global with Japan, Italy and Australia still to go.

Also of note, Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Love And Thunder crossed $400M overseas on Thursday, and added $4.9M in 46 offshore markets this weekend for a $405M international cume. Global is now $737.1M. And, Sony’s Where The Crawdads Sing is nearing $100M worldwide.

LOCAL-LANGUAGE & IMAX

While the studios are not releasing any major new wide films overseas until October, some markets are excelling with a mix of Hollywood and local titles. In July, Korea was up 150% on last year’s same period, nearly reaching pre-pandemic levels. Top Gun: Maverick was the top grosser for the month, followed by Thor: Love And Thunder and local sequel Hansan: Rising Dragon which released at the end of the month. That movie has now grossed $51.1M through Sunday, landing at No. 2 this weekend behind Hunt, the directorial debut of Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae at $23.5M after 12 days, per Kobiz figures.

IMAX is also benefiting from the diversity of its slate across multiple local titles. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is at $800K in the format internationally with 33 screens coming on line this week in Germany, India, Indonesia and Dominican Republic. China’s New Gods: Yang Jian did $1.75M in IMAX this weekend, though it shared the network’s screens with Minions (which did $380K in China IMAX. One Piece Film: Red has also been a big breakout for IMAX in Japan with $4.3M to date, the 6th highest-grossing local title ever for the format in the market. In Taiwan, OPR opened to $230K on 10 IMAX screens for 15% of the nationwide total.

Other global IMAX cumes after this weekend include Top Gun: Maverick’s $103.4M, Minions: The Rise Of Gru‘s $13M, Nope’s $12.1M and Bullet Train’s $7.1M.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Where The Crawdads Sing (SNY): $4.1M intl weekend (23 markets); $20M intl cume/$97.7M global
Beast (UNI): $2.8M intl weekend (38 markets); $10.3M intl cume/$21.9M global
Elvis (WB): $2M intl weekend (68 markets); $125M intl cume/$269.7M global

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