International Box Office: Despicable Me Steals Crown from Spider-Man with $72.7 million

July 19, 2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming

I thought last week was close, but this week was even closer. In fact, according to Sunday’s estimates, Spider-Man: Homecoming was the top film on the international chart, but Monday’s final numbers had Despicable Me 3 in first place. That film earned $72.7 million in 61 markets for totals of $434.00 million internationally and $622.39 million worldwide. Its biggest opening came in Indonesia, where it earned $3.5 million on 230 screens. Meanwhile, the film is now the second biggest animated film at the Chinese box office. This past weekend, Despicable Me 3 earned $22.09 million on 8,057 screens for a two-week total of $115.16 million. The film opens in Japan and South Korea before the end of the month, as well as Italy and a few other smaller markets by the end of August.

Spider-Man: Homecoming was very close behind with $71.21 million on 21,237 screens in 80 markets for totals of $260.07 million internationally and $467.35 million worldwide. The film had two major market openings this past weekend scoring first place in France with $6.33 million on 808 screens. It had to settle for second place in Germany with $3.67 million on 975. Its biggest market overall remains South Korea, where it added $11.69 million on 1,839 screens over the weekend for a two-week total of $41.99 million. The film has yet to open in China and Japan and it is on pace to reach nearly $700 million worldwide without those two markets. $700 million worldwide will probably be enough to cover its combined production and advertising budgets, so it will break even before it reaches the home market.

War for the Planet of the Apes only managed third place with $46.0 million in 61 markets. This is a little behind the previous installment in the franchise, whereas most analysts thought it would outperform Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The film’s biggest opening came in the U.K., where it earned first place with $9.41 million on 597 screens. It also earned first place in Russia with $4.98 million on 1,318 screens.

Wukong debuted in first place in its native China and fourth place internationally with $42.09 million over the weekend for a total opening of $59.01 million.

Cars 3 returned to the international chart earning $20.1 million in 33 markets over the weekend for totals of $82.9 million internationally and $222.9 million worldwide. It opened in a number of major markets and did... okay in most of them. The film earned $3.43 million in 522 theaters in the U.K., as well as $3.3 million in Brazil and $2.8 million in Japan. It looks to be on pace for $250 million internationally and about $400 million worldwide. This will be the weakest film in the franchise, but this movie wasn’t made to sell movie tickets. It was made to sell toys. Every studio has its cash cows, so I’m fine with Pixar making a movie like Cars 3, as long as they use some of the profits to make movies like Inside Out, WALL-E, etc.

Filed under: International Box Office, War for the Planet of the Apes, Despicable Me 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Cars 3, Wukong, Planet of the Apes, Cars