International Round Up: Onward Leads Taiwan, Box Office Moves Upward, Cineworld Eyes July for Reopening

May 28, 2020

Onward

Cineworld announced tentative plans to reopen all 790 theaters they operate in 11 markets in July. This would be great news for the movie industry, if it happens. The cinema chain is the biggest in the US domestic market, but it is also a major player in Europe. There are still several major markets in Europe with tens of thousands of active cases of COVID-19, including the U.K., France, Spain, Italy, so it remains uncertain whether their full plans will come to fruition. If this works, then it will be a big boost to morale as it is a concrete sign things are returning to normal. If there’s a second wave and cinemas have to be shut down again, like what happened in China, then it could be devastating. As for this week’s box office numbers, there is not a lot to talk about, but what we few numbers we have are mostly positive.

Onward debuted in Taiwan with $252,000 over the weekend. That’s only about 10% of what Toy Story 4 opened with last year, so clearly the box office has a long way to recover. Granted, that film was a $1-billion sequel, so it isn’t a completely fair comparison. Coco was also an original story and that movie opened with $649,000 in 2017. If we use that film as a guide, then the box office looks a lot more positive. Additionally, we have seen films grow week-to-week in many markets, so perhaps this film will have very long legs in theaters.

Escape From Pretoria again led the way in South Korea, this time earning $267,000 in 547 theaters over the weekend for a total of $899,000 so far. Its weekend haul grew by 11%, which is a hopeful sign. Interestingly, The Greatest Showman landed in second place with a re-release earning $207,000 in 598 theaters and that’s not bad for a film that’s more than two years old. Unfortunately, the top ten actually dipped 5% from last weekend with just $1.06 million.

On the other hand, Germany saw its box office grow by 4% to $1.28 million, again led by local hit Perfect Strangers with $107,000 in 58 theaters. The staggered reopening of cinemas will continue over the coming weeks with more cities opening next week. Berlin isn’t currently set to open until after June 5th, but when it does, we could see a resurgence in box office numbers, if audiences feel safe enough to go to the movies. Active COVID-19 cases in Germany could dip below 10,000 by June 1st, which would be an important milestone to reach.

Japan saw its box office grow from $13,000 last weekend to $36,000 this weekend. Additionally, the state of emergency was lifted in Tokyo, so theaters there could open there relatively soon.

Hong Kong nearly doubled its total box office take to $960,000. It was led by two Japanese animated films, Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna with $479,000 in 53 theaters, and My Hero Academia: Hero Rising with $144,000 in 48.

Likewise, New Zealand also nearly doubled its box office, with a total of $31,000 in 159 theaters. As of yesterday, there were only 21 confirmed active cases in the entire country. Granted, New Zealand is a small country at just 5 million people, which is about the same population as Alabama, but that still puts it very close to beating the pandemic. We could see things return to normal in this country very soon.

Norway saw its admissions grow by 73% to 18,000, while Iceland’s box office grew by 24% to $28,000. Australia is still limited to drive-ins, so its small growth was expected. We are seeing some hopeful signs and if we can avoid a second wave in the pandemic, then that looks as though it will continue.

Filed under: International Box Office, Onward, Escape From Pretoria, Boku no Hīrō Akademia The Movie Hīrōzu: Raijingu