International Round Up: Underwater Helps the International Box Office Breath Again

June 4, 2020

Underwater

More and more countries are either re-opening cinemas or at the very least lessening restrictions. Japan ended its state of emergency, Norway is opening up, France plans to open on June 22nd, parts of Spain are already opening up. Warner Bros. continues to be optimistic about Tenet’s July opening date. Meanwhile, international box office numbers suggest we should be cautious in our box office predictions. For example, Underwater earned $402,000 during its five-day opening in South Korea, making it the biggest hit in that market in a while. However, that would still be a weak opening day if the box office was truly back to normal. Overall, the ten ten in South Korea was up 10% from last weekend, to reach $1.2 million, so at least there’s progress there. There are plans for some major local films to be released in June and they could help the box office get closer to normal. That would be a big boost to the overall industry.

Likewise, Germany saw its box office grow with the top 24 earning 4% more at $1.33 million. We would likely see better growth if the market had major new releases and it wasn’t being led by Perfect Strangers, a film that came out last year.

Speaking of major new releases, Onward saw its box office grow 4% in Taiwan with $262,000 over the weekend for a total of $638,000 after two. This is still much lower than we would have expected without the pandemic and this is especially troubling as Taiwan was able to avoid the brunt of the disease. The country has a population of nearly 24 million and throughout May, it was reporting less than one new case per day. If the people of Taiwan don’t feel safe going to the movies, then I can’t imagine openings in Spain or France will go much better.

We saw this effect in Austria where theaters were allowed to open this past weekend, but most simply didn’t. The top 24 there earned $121,000, led by Bohemian Rhapsody with $18,000 in four theaters. Granted, we are also stuck in a feedback loop. The box office numbers are weak, so studios don’t want to release a major film at this point and the lack of major new releases are hurting the box office numbers. We might need a studio taking a risk and releasing something major to get things going again. That’s where Tenet could help.

Hong Kong slipped 24% to $727,000. However, there were no major releases this past weekend and Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna fell nearly 50% to $250,000 in 52 theaters during its second weekend of release. I think it is safe to say the decline is just normal week-to-week fluctuation due to a much weaker slate of movies coming out and not a reason to panic over the future.

On the other hand, New Zealand more than doubled its box office with the top ten earning $71,000. According to their Ministry of Health, there is now just one active case in the entire country.

Filed under: International Box Office, Onward, Underwater