Warner Bros/Alcon’s Practical Magic 2 wound up flying to a $46M global debut, with $16M overseas and $30M domestic. Note the sequel to this Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman 1990s property is stateside driven, so expect a bulk of the gross to come from there. However, the $16M start is under the $18M-$23M that the studio was hoping for in 77 territories.
Offshore comps here are to such Bullock titles as Lost City and pre-Covid Ocean’s 8 (the box office truth is that she racks up more ticket sales than Kidman when it comes to solo outings. Note Bullock has more studio features versus Kidman’s indie/arthouse film launches) and sequels to beloved female 1990s properties, i.e. Freakier Friday. Freakier Friday opened to $44.5M global ($15.5M abroad, $28.5M domestic) and Ocean’s 8 bowed to $53.7M global pre-Covid, hence this opening for Practical Magic 2 is par for the course. Unfortunately, it’s not the post Labor Day fireworks we’re use to from Warner Bros with the It franchise, last year’s Conjuring: Last Rites and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from two years ago.
Tracking stateside was bullish, believing Practical Magic 2 would approach $38M, maybe even $40M, however, what is clear, even though this opening is right where Bullock’s Lost City was, is that this is a cult 1990s female property. It was never meant to be massive ala Devil Wears Prada 2.
No like-for-like comps are provided here, so we’ll juxtapose everything against historical numbers, unadjusted for inflation and currency swings:
Pic’s top opening was in the UK with $3.9M which is in line with Lost City‘s start there of $3.5M (pic ended its run at $13.5M) and ahead of Freakier Friday‘s $2.3M (pic finaled at $12.1M).
Australia brought in $2.2M, which is ahead of Freakier Friday‘s $1.3M start. Overall, the sequel’s best strength was in English speaking markets.
Mexico’s $1.2M start is under Lost City‘s $2M and Freakier Friday‘s $2.7M. Germany’s $770K is under Lost City‘s $1.4M but ahead of Freakier Friday‘s $549K. Spain was $651K (similar to Lost City), France $569K (under Lost City‘s $2.5M), Brazil $528K, Italy $487K (similar to Lost City), Poland $315K, UAE $270K, Holland $253K and New Zealand was $237K.
Lost City ended its run at $105.3M domestic and $87.5M international ($192.9M WW(). Its first weekend abroad was staggered. Production cost was similar to Practical Magic here at around $75M net.
Freakier Friday finaled at $94.1M in North America, $59M international and $153.1M worldwide off a net cost of $45M.
Universal Pictures;
Universal’s The Odyssey filed a ninth weekend at the global B.O. of $34.4M from 85 territories with a running cume of $1.68 billion. The pic beats Spider-Man: Brand New Day worldwide for the second weekend in a row worldwide ($27.4M WW, $19M overseas and $8.4M domestic). We told you yesterday that the Christopher Nolan movie became the highest grossing Universal theatrical release ever, overtaking Jurassic World. Of that global take, $27M came from offshore which included the pic’s official opening weekend in Japan which was $4.1M at 360 screens including a week of Imax previews (all in Japan weekend and previews for Imax stand at $2.5M). The standard 3-day opening is well above Oppenheimer and more than double Dune: Part Two. Stateside weekend was $7.4M in third place, -43% for a $600M running cume armed still by Imax screens.
Korea added $5.2M for a running $87.6M total as the clear No.1 title in the market. The Odyssey is estimated to have surpassed the lifetime of Avengers: Endgame this weekend to become the market’s third biggest Hollywood film of all time, as well as Universal’s biggest film ever. China’s fifth frame is $3.7M for a $104.3M cume. The pic is still Nolan’s second biggest, though performing in-line with Interstellar at the same point.
In Germany, The Odyssey saw a great hold boosted by discounted tickets during the Kinofest. Ninth weekend is $1.6M for a $61.8M cume. France’s ninth weekend was $1.3M for a $88.8M cume, making it the fourth biggest MPA title of all-time there and Uni’s biggest ever in the country.
Nolan’s homeland of UK rang up $1.2M weekend for a $113.7M running total. The movie stands among UK and Ireland’s top 10 movies ever.
As Imax’s highest grossing movie ever, The Odyssey counts $506M around the world for the large format exhibitor. Ninth frame was $14.6M WW ($4.5M from domestic repping 61% of its weekend for a running U.S./Canada total of $215.2M). International weekend was $10.2M for a running total of $290.9M. Breaking out the Imax 70MM grosses, they did $3.2M this weekend for a running cume of $78.8M. At this great pace, Odyssey could continue to hang onto Imax screens into the dead zone of October if it wanted.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will beat Force Awakens around Tuesday as the highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office. Right now, by end of today, its North American cume stands at $935.1M, overseas at $1.51B, and global at $2.452B, still third behind Avatar ($2.92B) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.79B). Top five territories cume wise are China at $233.0M, the UK at $132.0M, Mexico at $90.7M, France at $86.5M, and Brazil at $76.7M.
Insidious: Out the Further from Sony/Stage 6/Blumhouse Atomic Monster minted $10.2M fourth global weekend ($6.8M from offshore in 66 markets, $3.35M domestic). Global running total is $155.2M, $94.7M of that coming from international. Worldwide is ahead of Insidious ($100.1M) and Insidious Chapter 3 ($112.9M). Highest grossing pic in franchise remains the last one, Insidious: Red Door with $189M WW.
Disney’s concert doc Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger took in $8.2M WW ($1.4M domestic, $6.8M foreign). Imax repped 71% of the pic’s domestic weekend. The documentary opened as the No. 2 pic in the band’s home country of the UK with $3.6M, by far the top foreign territory. The top 5 theatres for Saturday were Vue Manchester Printworks, BFI IMAX, Showcase Glasgow East, Cineworld Glasgow Silverburn and Cineworld Ashton-Under-Lyne. Imax drove 14% of the gross as the end of Saturday in UK. Elsewhere, the doc opened within the top 5 as follows: No. 1 MPA in Thailand ($200K), No. 3 MPA in Japan ($400K), No. 4 MPA Korea ($100K), Indonesia and New Zealand and #5 (MPA) in Italy ($600K), Australia ($300K), Sweden, Chile and Uruguay. Mexico and Germany did $200K apiece. France and Netherlands did a $100K apiece.