The winner
Improved news for our slightly shopworn fresh prince, as Will Smith and Warner’s con caper Focus jumps to the global top spot, expanding from 32 to 50 territories. A flush of No 1 openings – in Mexico, Italy, Australia and Argentina – bolster the theory that Smith’s primary constituency these days is overseas. More specifically, it’s developing economies that are clinging, as with many an ageing A-lister, to the Men in Black star: openings are up from 2005’s romcom Hitch (the comparison point used last week) in Argentina (Focus: $641K; Hitch: $154K), Czech Republic (Focus: $58K; Hitch: $34K) and Slovakia (Focus: $53K; Hitch: $10K); Russia, in its second week, was also ahead of the pace set by Hitch (Focus: $6.3m; Hitch: $2m). Contrast those with the Italian (Focus: $2.2m; Hitch: $2.5m) and Australian (Focus: $2.1m; Hitch: $2.7m) openings, and the UK running total (Focus: $6.5m; Hitch: $15.5m). Will’s going to be clocking up a lot of unfamiliar passport stamps in the coming years, if those figures are anything to go by.
No disassemble
Neill Blomkamp’s lobbying campaign for the directorship of the next Alien film has made his current work-in-play, Johannesburg-set robot parable Chappie, feel like a bit of an afterthought. And a wan $13.3m US opening – well behind $29.8m for Blomkamp’s Elysium and $37.3m for District 9 – and $27m overall on a global rollout much more front-loaded than either of those two films is the pay-off. What did the real damage is the fact that, choosing to release post-Oscars but before blockbuster season begins proper, distributor Sony hasn’t really backed the film. Flavourless trailers put antagonist Hugh Jackman – whose solo box-office appeal is debatable – high up the mix, amid a general splurge of techno-carnage. But they failed to showcase the film’s distinctive elements: its South African “zef” swagger, as represented in the persons of rappers Die Antwoord, and its thin but tangy lacquer of satire. It was partly the sense of a novel proposition coming from unfamiliar climes (in blockbuster terms at least) that pushed Blomkamp’s debut, District 9, to a superb $210.8m on a $30m budget.
Films with robotic protagonists, surprisingly, have never done fantastically in the US, with just Wall-E taking over $100m. Given its opening weekend, it’s unlikely Chappie will match either the new ($58m) or old ($109m, inflation-corrected) Robocop, or Short Circuit ($86.8m, inflation-corrected), its obvious progenitors. Internationally, it seems to be doing slightly better in Asia, with No 1 openings in Malaysia ($1.1m), Taiwan ($814K), Indonesia ($757K) and Thailand ($701K) auguring better for appearances in tech-centric South Korea (19 March) and Japan (23 May). And of course home turf South Africa (13 March) should be strong. Elysium lent on overseas markets – 67.5% of its $286.1m gross – to make up for a so-so US performance; Chappie is in danger already of being a write-off, or at least on a reasonable $50m budget, a writedown.
Space wreckage
Andy and Lana Wachowski’s cosmic misfire, Jupiter Ascending, got a desperately needed turbo-boost a month after its day-and-date rollout: a belated $24.3m Chinese debut made it the week’s biggest overseas earner. That’s Warner Brother’s fifth-biggest opening in the territory and gives it a fighting chance, like the studio’s Pacific Rim, of joining that burgeoning fellowship: films that made more in China than the US (where Jupiter Ascending has taken $45m so far). Which will be the only accolade on the mantelpiece. With the film now up to $152m worldwide, profit remains light years away, with Deadline Hollywood quoting a true budget in excess of $200m plus $100m of marketing costs. With only Japan to come in terms of major markets, even $200m gross is an outside bet, making it a financial catastrophe of the order of Disney’s John Carter, which took $284.1m on a $250m budget. Deadline’s piece speculates interestingly on the Wachowskis being left unsupervised home alone after Jeff Robinov, the executive with whom they had the closest relationship, left Warner in 2013. With such a large financial burden, the casting also looks suspect, with Mila Kunis totally unproven as a lead and hot-right-now Channing Tatum possessing a stronger record in comedies and comedy-dramas. The sad thing is that a few more fiscal restrictions could have prevented a debacle that looks likely to end the big-budget career of a pair of creative mavericks. The Fifth Element’s $263.9m in 1997 - $384.2 inflation-corrected – against $90m of outlay is the kind of space-opera business model Warner should have been aiming for.
Kill shot
Two milestones for American Sniper, still lurking in the brush of the top 10 this week: it has now passed the $500m worldwide mark; and, with $337.2m of that in domestic gross at time of writing, has become the No 1 US film for 2014, passing the latest Hunger Games. It’s the only non-franchised work on the list. Wherever you stand on the film’s politics, that has to be a good thing. Italy ($23.1m), the UK ($20.5m), France ($16.8m – where it’s holding strongly at No 1), Australia ($15.1m) and Japan ($12.2m) are the top overseas markets; currently at 14th on the global chart for 2014, it should pass Godzilla ($528.7m) and stick one place higher. In the upper echelons, only The Lego Movie (55%) and Divergent (52.3%), and 22 Jump Street (58%) – franchise-openers and comedies never being the greatest travellers – come close to being as Yank-centric as Clint’s film. The clue’s in the title.
The rest of the world
The Chinese new-year blockbusters were still hanging around the global top 10 for a third weekend, but a rare Russian film made an appearance this week. Dukhless 2, a sequel to Roman Prygunov’s 2012 film about a new-Muscovite playboy who realises the error of his capitalist ways when he meets a comely revolutionary, took $3.7m, top spot there, and 19th globally. Lead actor Danila Kozlovsky, in the ensemble for the Weinstein Company’s Vampire Academy last year, has one foot in the Hollywood door. Not included on the Rentrak list was Doraemon: Nobita’s Space Heroes $5.3m bow in Japan – an amazing 36th big-screen outing for the time-travelling robot cat and anime icon.
The future
Disney tries to maintain its princess chokehold with Kenneth Branagh’s version of Cinderella dropping in about 30 countries – accompanied by a new Frozen short. That includes an unusual face-off opening weekend for the US and China, with fantasy material an increasingly strong performer in the latter. Liam Neeson tries to maintain a different sort of chokehold – one administered by a gruff yet buff father figure – as he reteams with Non-Stop director Jaume Collet-Saura for crinkly action-fest Run All Night, which gets a 10-country first weekend. Chappie and Focus add more sporadic territories. And in India, Anushka Sharma looks to build towards what – after playing second fiddle in international record-breaker PK – could be a big 2015. She produces and stars in road-trip thriller NH10, which looks more harrowing than the Bollywood average and could benefit from the debate around violence against women in the country generated by the ban on BBC film India’s Daughter.
Top 10 global box office, 6-8 March
1. Focus, $27.6m from 50 territories. $72m cumulative – 51.8% int; 48.2% US
2. (New) Chappie, $27m from 54 territories – 50.7% int; 49.3% US
3. Jupiter Ascending, $26.4m from 54 territories. $152.1m cum – 70.4% int; 29.6% US
4. Kingsman: The Secret Service, $25.3m from 68 territories. $248.8m cum – 60.6% int; 39.4% US
5. Fifty Shades of Grey, $23.3m from 60 territories. $527.7m cum – 70.4% int; 29.6% US
6. Big Hero 6, $19.9m from 26 territories. $604.8m cum – 63.4% int; 36.6% US
7. American Sniper, $19.1m from 58 territories. $500.2m cum – 32.6% int; 67.4% US
8. Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water, $16.6m from 52 territories. $259.4m cum – 42.6% int; 57.4% US
9. Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, $14.2m from 10 territories. $29.6m cum – 70.9% int; 29.1% US
10. From Vegas to Macau II, $10m from 5 territories. $133m cum – 100% int
• Thanks to Rentrak. Some of this week’s figures are based on estimates; all historical figures unadjusted, unless otherwise stated.
