International Box Office: Chinese Movie Fans Have Seen Better Days

October 30, 2019

Better Days

Better Days opened in first place in China with $86.11 million, which was also enough to give it first place internationally. This is an amazing start, all things considered. The movie was supposed to open in June, but the Chinese censors yanked the film at the last minute, then announced a new release day less than a week before the film opened. It is a minor miracle it was able to do this well.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was pushed into second place with $64.3 million in 56 markets for totals of $228.1 million internationally and $294.3 million worldwide. The film’s biggest single market was China, where it added $7.69 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $43.23 million. This is already more than the original managed there in total.

Joker landed in third place with $49.2 million on 14,461 screens in 79 markets for totals of $574.1 million internationally and $851.9 million worldwide. As expected, the film became the highest grossing R-rated film of all time and it remains on pace for $1 billion worldwide.

Terminator: Dark Fate started its international run with $12.56 million in 10 markets. This includes $3.67 million in the U.K. and $3.0 million in France, neither of which are particularly strong debuts. It was relatively stronger in Thailand ($1.5 million) and Malaysia ($1.1 million) and I suspect the film will perform better in Asia generally.

Gemini Man rounded out the top five with $12.7 million in 60 markets for totals of $104.9 million internationally and $148.2 million worldwide. This is more than it cost to make, but nowhere near enough to break even.

Filed under: International Box Office, Gemini Man, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate, Joker, Shao Nian De Ni