International Box Office: Ice Age Collides with Top Spot Earning $53.5 million

July 21, 2016

Ice Age: Collision Course

Ice Age: Collision Course rose to first place with $53.5 million in 51 markets for an early international total of $127.0 million. The film’s biggest new market was France, where it earned first place with $7.07 million on 873 screens. That’s a pretty good opening for that market, but the previous film opened with $12.76 million in that market, so that’s a sizable drop-off. The film also earned first place in Russia with $5.85 million on 1,236, compared to $16.97 million the earlier film opened with. That’s really troubling. Meanwhile, the film had to settle for second place in the U.K. with $4.99 million in 570 theaters. (We can’t really compare openings here. The numbers we get for the U.K. are actually for the U.K., Ireland, and Malta. It’s similar to the domestic market being Canada and the States. In almost all cases this doesn’t matter, because films open in all three countries at the same time. However, Continental Drift opened in Ireland first, before expanding into the U.K., so there’s no easy way to compare the two results.) At this pace, it looks like Collision Course isn’t going to match its predecessor at the box office. However, it could fail to earn half as much worldwide and still break even on the home market. This might be the last installment in the franchise, on the other hand.

Finding Dory rose to second place with $36.5 million in 45 markets for totals of $276.2 million internationally and $721.9 million worldwide. The film’s biggest opening of the weekend was in Mexico, where it pulled in $9.57 million, which is almost exactly $1 million more than Inside Out opened with this time last year. It earned $6.3 million over two days in Japan, which is almost double what Inside Out opened with last year. It also debuted in first place in Hong Kong with $1.9 million over the weekend and $2.8 million including previews. Inside Out didn’t have previews, but earned $1.77 million on 172 screens during its opening weekend. The film is earning the best results in many international markets in Pixar’s history, although Toy Story 3 is proving to be a challenge in some of them.

The Legend of Tarzan rose to third spot with $22.0 million in 55 markets for an international total of $90.6 million and a worldwide total of $194.0 million. The film’s biggest opening came in Sweden, where it made $2.4 million. It also did very well in Italy with $1.53 million. Unfortunately, the film cost a lot to make, so it will likely need about $400 million worldwide to break even any time soon. I don’t think it is going to get there.

Ghostbusters opened in fourth place with $19.1 million in over 30 markets. That sounds like a lot of markets, but the vast majority of them were small markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Mostly. Its biggest market was the U.K. where it made $5.79 million in 581, giving it first place over the weekend. This is almost 50% more than Spy opened with in that market. The film pulled in $3.57 million on 493 screens in Australia, 25% more than Spy made. Brazil was next with $2.15 million on 722 screens... this is more than Spy made in total in that market. Depending on how long its legs are, and if it can replicate its early success in other markets, then the film could make $200 million internationally. This would be the biggest international hit in Paul Feig’s career.

Now You See Me 2 rounded out the top five with $17.5 million in 77 markets for totals of $203.7 million internationally and $267.2 million worldwide. The film returned to the international top five thanks mostly to its first place opening in South Korea. It made $8.02 million on 1,200 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $12.64 million. The film is doing better internationally than its predecessor did, and that’s not even counting Spain, France, Germany, and Japan, where it has yet to open. This is great news for Lionsgate, because they needed a win. They really needed a win.

Filed under: International Box Office, Ghostbusters, Finding Dory, Ice Age: Collision Course, The Legend of Tarzan, Now You See Me 2, Ice Age, Paul Feig