International Round Up: Another Small Sign we are Returning to Normal

June 17, 2020

Little Women

For the first time in a long time, we got official box office numbers from a major studio this week. Sony released Little Women in Japan where it earned $495,000 and placed first in the market. The film also remained first in Denmark with $255,000 during its second weekend of release for a running tally of $750,000 so far. Both of these numbers are fairly good, as dramas are a lot harder to translate to other languages and cultures than action films are. They also indicate a growing theatrical market in both territories. Furthermore, the source material for this movie has a distinct American feel, so it is not surprising that it wasn’t a monster hit in either of these markets. Overall, Little Women pulled in $760,000 on 440 screens in 13 markets for an international total of $99.5 million after about six month of release. It should get to $100 million in the next week or so.

Another market that is showing signs of recovering is South Korea. This past weekend, a local film, Gyeolbaek, earned first place with $1.92 million on 1,111 screens for a total opening of $2.38 million. This is nowhere near what the $7.6 million Aladdin made in South Korea this weekend last year, but the top ten was up 27% from last weekend at $4.04 million. Furthermore, Onward opens this weekend, so the box office could have a big leap next weekend.

Little Women helped the Japanese top ten skyrocket 171% from last weekend, but it is still at just $532,000, so the market still has a long way to recover. That said, 93% of its screens are still closed, so it is no shock the overall box office is so low. The growth rate is an encouraging sign.

New Zealand was another market that saw strong growth, as its top ten rose 74% to $183,000. This includes The Trip to Greece and Love Sarah, which were neck-and-neck over the weekend. The Trip to Greece earned first place with $38,000 in 69 theaters over the weekend for a total opening of $53,000, while Love Sarah was right behind with $35,000 in 46 over the weekend for a total opening of $53,000.

Spain grew by 300% from last weekend. Okay, it earned $64,000 this weekend compared to $16,000 last weekend, which doesn’t as impressive. The market is still about 95% closed, so it has a long way to go before it is fully opened.

On the downside, there were several markets that saw the overall box office shrink. Taiwan was down 5% with its top ten earning $344,000, while Hong Kong’s top ten was down 6% to $622,000. Germany and Australia each had 16% declines, with the former’s top 10 pulling in $418,000 while the later managed $159,000. Meanwhile, the Netherlands was down 26% with the top ten there earning $576,000. We are in a “chicken and the egg” situation here. Box office numbers were down in most of these markets due to the lack of big new releases. However, studios won’t want to release potential monster hits until they think the box office has recovered enough to be worth releasing such films.

Filed under: International Box Office, Onward, Little Women, The Trip to Greece, Love Sarah, Gyeolbaek