Bollywatch
Salman Khan’s stellar year (box office-wise – let’s not dwell on the other stuff) continued with his new romantic drama Prem Ratan Dhan Payo opening at approximately 130 crore ($19.7m). Distributors Fox Star are spinning this as the highest Bollywood debut weekend ever: true, if you ignore the fact that this figure is for four days. Counted over the more typical Friday to Sunday frame, 89.3 crore actually clocks in as Bollywood’s sixth strongest start, with 2014’s Happy New Year (108.9 crore) and 2013’s Dhoom 3 (107.6 crore) still heading the list. All this follows Indian box-office sources; rather confusing was Fox Star’s claim on Sunday night, via the Rentrak chart below, that Khan’s film had done $27m domestically, which would be a ridiculous 178 crore. Presumably this is a gross figure being used to create an impression of a crushing new record for Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Indian box-office statistics, including the previous benchmarks supposedly beaten, are usually marked up net). Anyway, fixating on Bollywood does a disservice to July’s Telugu blockbuster Baahubali, the broad-shouldered outsider that with 140 crore is still India’s highest opener ever (whichever Prem Ratan figures you use) on a mere three-day count.
Whatever the truth, there’s no doubting that “Salmania” is more than intact after the star’s recent legal wrangles. He broke easily into the vaunted 100-crore ($15.1m) club during Eid in July with cross-border Indian-Pakistan tearjerker Bajrangi Bhaijaan (102.6 crore); the film wound up becoming Bollywood’s second most successful worldwide on 626 crore. Now Prem Ratan Dhan Payo – a Prince and the Pauper-style romance in which Khan reprises the Prem naif he has played several times for director Sooraj Barjatya – has done the same for Diwali, and presumably the Hindu demographic. Its three-day Indian debut looks a little shy of Bajrangi’s. The latter film, though, was especially strong overseas, and Prem is also holding its own there: the same $2.4m opening in the States; $1.5m (a Bollywood record) against Bajrangi’s $1.1m in the UK. So Khan – still in the hallowed group of Indian megastars along with fellow Khans Aamir and Shah Rukh – has the ninth 100-crore film of his career, and looks a shoe-in for the Bollywood top 10 list once more.
Bond in China
Spiffing news for our boy from the Far East, where Spectre’s $48.1m (£31.6m) Chinese debut is the country’s highest 2D one ever – and a decisive advance on Skyfall’s $34.2m bow. The latter’s Shanghai and Macau-set scenes, presumably a sop to local audiences, backfired when they were censored by the government. But Sony’s courtship this time – a more dutiful publicity campaign that included Daniel Craig launching Singles Day for online shopping giant Alibaba – looks to have gone down better. Spectre seems to be making gains in other places where specific overtures have been made, like in opening-sequence host Mexico, whose running total ($8.3m) is already up on Skyfall’s final one. Sony weren’t reporting the French figures out of respect for the Paris attacks, which closed cinemas at the weekend. The overall picture for Spectre is mixed, with second-weekend totals notably down in Russia and Brazil; the kind of emerging markets Bond has his eye on. Currently at $543.8m worldwide, second place in the series’ ranking is guaranteed next week, with Casino Royale’s $599m within touching distance. Spectre held better than Skyfall (-50%) in the States, and if it can replicate that sort of form in the coming weeks, it may have a shot at $1bn. China may promise box-office galore, but the film faces very stiff Hollywood competition in the next fortnight there in the shape of the last Hunger Games and The Martian’s sycophantically transparent Chinese plotline.
The reluctant star
Among the conclusions from the failure of Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic is that Michael Fassbender is another new-generation star without much tangible commercial clout. His Jobs is another electric, fulsomely praised performance – but Fassbender has still been unable to pull in mainstream punters for a project many are speculating lacked enough interest outside the techerati. Universal’s film, now on release in 13 countries, is doing no better overseas than in the States, its UK and Germany openings lagging well behind the similarly themed, Aaron Sorkin-penned The Social Network (Social Network, UK: $3.9m, Germany: $2.3m / Steve Jobs, UK: $1.4m, Germany: $650K). In terms of what the film could have done for Fassbender’s A-list chances, then perhaps he won’t be too upset. His filmography – heavy on firecracker arthouse leads (Hunger, Shame, Frank, Slow West, Macbeth), choice roles in big-budget ensembles (Prometheus, The Counsellor, the X-Men prequels), but with marquee blockbuster parts completely absent – suggests breaking out has not been a priority so far. Which is surprising for the leading man with perhaps the most bristling screen presence since Daniel Day-Lewis. Next year’s videogame adaptation Assassin’s Creed, apparently budgeted close to $200m, looks like the long-awaited push up to the next tier. Steve Jobs is no financial quantum leap (currently at $20.3m worldwide, it should see still some kind of profit before it finishes rolling out), but it won’t do Fassbender’s thesping credentials any harm.
Beyond Hollywood
Random Chinese newcomer this week, in global 10th spot, was A Journey Through Time with Anthony: a romantic drama about three years in the life of a student heading off to an American university. It’s an adaptation of a novel on the influential Zui Culture youth imprint run by Guo Jingming, whose Tiny Times series has also torn up the Chinese box office. Chilean drama The 33, in at No 11 on the strength of its $5.8m US opening, is attempting what tsunami story The Impossible did in 2012: an English-language dramatisation of an internationally covered disaster, in this case the 2010 trapping of a group of workers in the San José mine. With Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne and James Brolin adding a global-finance-tickling aspect to the cast, The 33 has already taken at least $12m outside the US.
The BBC’s The Lady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith as vagrant former pianist Mary Shepherd in the screen version of Alan Bennett’s play, took $3.5m in the UK for 16th place on the worldwide chart. Perhaps reflecting the more downbeat material, that’s a notch down from Smith’s recent openings for seniors fare Quartet ($3.6m) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ($5.8m).
The future
In as close to a simultaneous worldwide release as we’ve had for a bit, Hunger Games closes its account with Mockingjay – Part 2 opening in over 80 territories next week. (Greece and Spain, apparently the District 13 of the global film distribution circuit, get the film seven days later.) Jennifer Lawrence and co will be hoping that Hunger Games goes out with a Harry Potter-style uptick in takings thanks to the old “cleft grand-finale” routine. The second dose of Deathly Hallows Part 2 made over $400m more than the first; the kind of boost Hunger Games, which dropped from Catching Fire’s $865m to Mockingjay – Part 1’s $755.4m, would dearly love. Distributor Lionsgate, now looking franchise-light apart from the labouring Insurgent films, needs to make hay while it can.
Top 10 global box office, 13-15 November
1. Spectre, $188m from 92 territories. $543.8m cumulative – 76% international; 24% US
2. (New) Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, $33.4m from 8 territories. $33.7m cum – 91.8% int; 8.2% US
3. The Peanuts Movie, $26.7m from 13 territories. $90.5m cum – 8.8% int; 91.2% US
4. The Martian, $12m from 48 territories. $477.4m cum – 56.6% int; 43.4% US
5. Hotel Transylvania 2, $11.3m from 78 territories. $417.8m cum – 60.5% int; 39.5% US
6. The Priests, $9.3m from 1 territory. $25m cum – 100% int
7. (New) Love the Coopers, $8.4m from 1 territory – 100% US
8. Goosebumps, $7m from 47 territories. $103.2m cum – 28.8% int; 71.2% US
9. The Last Witch Hunter, $6.7m from 51 territories. $96.1m cum – 72.9% int; 27.1% US
10. (New) A Journey Through Time with Anthony, $6m from 1 territory – 100% int
• Thanks to Rentrak. This week’s figures are based on estimates; all historical figures unadjusted, unless otherwise stated.
