The China release of Sony/Constantin’s Resident Evil propelled the move not only to the top of the global weekend box office in its fourth frame with an overall $62.7M WW, but the pic also became Zach Cregger’s highest grossing movie ever (as we first told) with $320.2M. That beats the previous high of his Oscar winning Weapons ($270M WW) last year.
China delivered $40.6M, which repped the best opening for a horror film in the last two years.
Resident Evil invaded its native country of Japan with a $3.6M opening. Other top per performing market cumes are UK $17.0M, Mexico $11.8M, Australia $8.5M, France $8.5M, Germany $7.3M and Spain $7.1M.
Overall international cume on Resident Evil is $181.7M on 38,150+ screens in 67 offshore markets.
Praise be China’s National Day Golden Week holidays which fired up this zombie movie, a fave in the territory since Resident Evil: Final Chapter back in 2017 which opened to a reported (not adjusted for inflation and like for likes) $94.3M, and finaled at $159.5M in the Middle Kingdom.
Imax saw $8.8M from Resident Evil this weekend, $7.7M of that coming from China for an overall Imax total of $32.8M on the Cregger feature take of the Capcom game.
Jessica Chastain in ‘Other Mommy‘
Universal Pictures/Everett Collection
And, wow, Universal/Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s Other Mommy with a $45.1M global opening from 51 territories with $27.5M domestic and $17.6M abroad.
Why wow? For a horror movie with a D+ CinemaScore and awful reviews (Uni held critics at bay) to over perform in a marketplace where many are precious about what they want to see, is quite commendable and this Rob Savage-directed matriarch doppelgänger film only cost $19M net before global P&A. It just speaks to the continued staying power of genre. The weekend result is above M3GAN, Evil Dead Rise, The Black Phone, Smile and Evil Dead Burn, in the same markets.
Stateside, that’s Jessica Chastain’s sixth highest opening after It: Chapter Two ($91M), The Martian ($54.3M), Interstellar ($47.5M), X-Men: Dark Phoenix ($32.8M) and Mama ($28.4M), which was another solo horror vehicle for here. If you want to be technical about it, most of these films were ensembles, hence, Other Mommy can be argued as her second-highest solo start stateside. Point is, audiences clearly flocked to see Chastain in a spooky movie.
Other Mommy was No. 1 in UK/Ireland, Italy, Mexico, U.A.E., other Middle East, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina, Central America, Chile, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Norway, Singapore, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Lebanon, Trinidad, Pakistan and Iceland. The spiritual scary nature of the film is the reason for its rally in Catholic countries, specifically Latin America.
Chastain counted $2.6M at 625 screens in UK & Ireland, surpassing the lifetime box office of The Boogeyman to become Rob Savage’s highest-grossing theatrical release. The weekend result is above Exorcist: Believer, Evil Dead Rise, Smile and Speak No Evil, and more than double Black Phone.
Italy was molto bene with $2.2M at 315 screens, repping 31% of the weekend’s marketshare. The weekend result is above Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Backrooms, Resident Evil, Scream 7, Exorcist: Believer, more than double Evil Dead Rise, M3GAN and Insidious: Out of the Further, more than 5x Smile, and more than 8x The Black Phone.
Other Mommy counted $1.9M in Mexico for 24% of the weekend marketshare, a result that’s above Evil Dead Rise, M3GAN and Smile.
Australia’s $1.1M for the Savage pic ranked No. 2 at 246 screens, with a healthy 14% market share. The weekend result is above Black Phone, Exorcist: Believer, Insidious: Out of the Further, Smile and Evil Dead Rise.
Spain opened to a near $1M, ranking No. 2 behind local hit La Bola Negra. The weekend result is in line with Exorcist: Believer and Evil Dead Rise, above M3GAN, Black Phone and Smile.
Brazil’s $800K at 726 screens ranked 3rd in the country behind Verity and local film Minha Amiga, with a healthy 13% share of business. The weekend result is in line with Black Phone and above Smile.
U.A.E.’s great $700K No. 1 was above Black Phone, Exorcist: Believer, Smile and Evil Dead Rise, and more than double M3GAN.
Saudi Arabia had an excellent start with $600K, above Evil Dead Burn, Exorcist: Believer, Evil Dead Rise, Insidious: Out of the Further and M3GAN. Other Middle East was strong at $500K, taking the total for the Middle East region to an excellent $1.7M. Great starts in Southeast Asia with the region counting $2.2M from openings in Indonesia ($476K), Taiwan (+$424K), Malaysia ($416K), India ($327K), Philippines ($248K) and Vietnam ($217K). The opening result across the region is above M3GAN, more than double Black Phone and Smile.
Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh in ‘Verity’
Alisha Wetherill
Amazon/MGM Studio’s Verity is third with $30.1M second global weekend ($11.5M domestic, $18.6M int’l at 76 territories). Domestic of $53.9M and international B.O. of $60.1M put this Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett thriller at $114M WW. New openings for Verity are CIS region with $237K on 155 screens for a No. 1 rank. Taiwan grossed $140K from 89 screens and opened to No. 7. This is the biggest opening for a Colleen Hoover book adaptation in the country.
Holdovers for the Hoover pic were UK with $2.6M second weekend on 961 screens, -41% staying in No. 1 with a $9.7M running cume. Amazon can Danke schön Germany where Verity is still No. 1 with $2.5M at 695 screens, -17% for a $7.2M cume. Other No. 1s included Brazil ($2M at 1,289 screens, -42%, for a near $7M cume), Australia with $1.5M at 500 screens, -39% for a $5.8M cume.
Also No. 1: Portugal with $381K from 60 screens, down -40% and a $1.3M cume. Switzerland with $325K at 65 screens, -6% and an $820K tally. Austria with $315K at 69 screens, +4% with an $850K cume, and Hungary with $260K at 75 screens, -15% for a $655K running total.
France with $1M at 385 screens, -30%, ranked No. 5 with a $3.1M cume. Mexico with $860K at 915 screens, -40%, ranked No. 4 with a $3M cume.
Odin and Brad Pitt in ‘Heart of the Beast’
Paramount Pictures
Paramount’s The Heart of the Beast had a third worldwide weekend of $21M ($13.9M abroad, $7.1M North America). Domestic’s $49.66M and foreign’s great $81.7M adds up to a $131.3M tally around the world. That’s now ahead of the reported of another Hollywood star and dog survival movie, 2020’s The Call of The Wild starring Harrison Ford which finaled at $111.1M WW. Those countries still moved by this green beret movie are France ($2.1M third weekend at 750 locations, still No. 1 in the market, -29% for a $10.2M cume). Mexico’s third frame is $1.4M at 841 sites, No. 2, -27% for a cume of $7.2M. UK’s $1.1M third frame at 593 locations, ranks No. 3 and down 27% from last week for a $7.2M running cume.
Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in ‘The Social Reckoning‘
If it’s a bomb here, then typically it’s a bomb in the rest of the world, and it was clear going into this weekend that Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to his Oscar winning written The Social Network, The Social Reckoning, would have no friends with a $9M WW opening ($5.5M stateside, $3.5M overseas which is lower than the $6M hoped for ala the start of Lionsgate’s Bombshell in like-for-likes). The Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White movie was booked in 29 foreign territories on 4,100 screens. Why did it tank? The movie isn’t prescient enough in its recap of the Jan. 6 riots and why Facebook is bad for teens. Everyone nowadays wants to know if AI will kill them in a decade, which gives Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming Artificial more of a pulse.
Just a bit higher than Social Reckoning is the second weekend of Tom Cruise’s disastrous Digger, with $9.6M WW ($3.2M domestic, $6.4M abroad) for a running global cume on the $160M+ net production of $35.3M ($20.9M int’l, $14.4M domestic). At $50M WW, Digger loses $150M. Social Reckoning was much cheaper, around $40M, so the red ink won’t be so bad.
We will have more updates tomorrow.