Box Office: ‘F9’ Eyes Massive $150 Million-Plus Debut Overseas

Rebecca Davis editorDisney’s “Cruella” strut into China on Sunday with a $1.78 million opening day, coming in sixth in a slow weekend behind reigning box office champ “F9,” according to data from Maoyan.Day one China figures for “Cruella” were less than a fourth of the $7.7 million the film grossed on its May 28 opening day in North America, where it premiered in theaters and on Disney Plus via a $30 fee.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“F9,” the latest installment in Universal’s high octane franchise, has crossed a major box office milestone internationally.The film, starring Vin Diesel, John Cena and Michelle Rodriguez, surpassed the $250 million mark overseas, including a huge $203 million in China.Of course, “F9” carries a massive production budget and will require outsized global ticket sales to turn a profit.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“F9” downshifted dramatically from a furious start in Chinese cinemas a week ago to a more pedestrian $20.5 million second weekend. But that was still good enough to take first place ahead of two significant foreign releases.The “Fast & Furious” franchise title lost 84% of its pace on its second lap, compared with a blistering opening weekend of $137 million.

Refresh for latest…: It was a busy weekend at global turnstiles, with a particularly noisy start for Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II. The John Krasinski-helmed sequel came out shouting with a $22M overseas debut in just 12 markets for a worldwide opening of $70.4M including the three-day $48.4M North American haul.

Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II is looking to make some noise in China with a last-minute release date now set for this coming Friday (May 28). This is notable given that the first John Krasinski-helmed thriller was among the rare horror pics to gain access to the Middle Kingdom, and then was even granted an extension in 2018.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“F9” roared into the lead at the China box office, where the “Fast and Furious” franchise has repeatedly lapped faster than in North America.On its first weekend in China the film grossed $137 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.That gave it an 83% share of the China weekend box office, a market share figure that was notably stable from its Friday lights out.

That makes the “Fast & Furious” franchise the sixth in box office history to reach $6 billion in lifetime grosses, largely off of a launch in China that came with the most expansive marketing campaign for a “F&F” film ever in the country that yielded the second-highest Chinese opening ever for Universal. Only “The Fate of the Furious” in 2017 earned a higher opening with $184.9 million.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“F9” has the international box office sizzling.The latest installment in Universal’s testosterone-fueled franchise kicked off with a massive $162.4 million in eight markets, including China, Korea and Hong Kong.

Ellise Shafer administrator“F9,” the ninth installment in Universal’s “Fast and Furious” franchise, is speeding toward a pandemic-era box office record.The film has generated $127 million at the international box office to date, and it’s expected to gross more than $160 million through Sunday.

As a result, “F9” is the first Hollywood blockbuster since “Avengers: Endgame” to post a $100 million-plus opening in China, and has earned the largest global opening for a Hollywood film since the start of the pandemic. The film has also opened in Korea ($7.7 million), Russia ($6.4 million), Hong Kong ($2.2 million), and the Middle East ($5.5 million), scoring the strongest pandemic-era opening weekends in all those markets.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterThree new animated feature films from Asian American creators are coming to Netflix in 2023, including Stephen Chow’s “The Monkey King,” starring the voice talents of Jimmy O.

Christopher Vourlias For the third edition of its Key Buyers Event, a three-day content market showcasing the latest Russian productions to international buyers, state film promotion body Roskino is expanding the co-production market it introduced last year.The revamped event is the result of a collaboration with When East Meets West, the Trieste Film Festival’s co-production forum, which is dedicated to fostering partnerships between producers in the former Eastern Bloc and their counterparts

The Toretto family will be back in action this week as Universal’s F9 speeds into early offshore release beginning in Korea and Hong Kong on Wednesday, followed by Russia and the Middle East on Thursday and China on Friday. In those markets combined, F9 is looking to drive off with an opening weekend in the $160M-$180M range, industry sources believe, though it could go higher.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefZhang Yimou’s period espionage thriller “Cliff Walkers” ran out a comfortable winner at the mainland Chinese box office, ahead of other holdovers and new release titles including Jason Statham-starring “Wrath of Man.”“Cliff Walkers” dropped only 32% between its second and third weekends, taking $16.6 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Refresh for latest…: A significant week is ahead at the international box office as Universal’s F9 starts its engines in a handful of major markets including China, Russia and Korea — and as the UK and France will reopen cinemas after a roughly seven-month shutdown. In the meantime, Fast & Furious franchise alum Jason Statham’s Wrath Of Man was the main overseas Hollywood title this session, lifting its offshore cume to $41.4M for $56M global.

Amazon’s recent pick-up of Sony’s Camila Cabello musical movie Cinderella will hit the streamer this fall in 240 countries.

EXCLUSIVE: Solstice Studios has optioned the feature film rights to the Reeves Wiedeman New York Magazine article The Big Hack, which depicts what experts describe as a plausible doomsday disaster scenario caused by a wide-scale cyber-attack on New York City. The recent Colonial pipeline hack purportedly executed by a Russian ransomware group that is spiking gas prices on the East Coast makes the cautionary tale The Big Hack timely.

Rebecca Davis editorZhang Yimou’s spy thriller “Cliff Walkers” strode into first place this weekend at the China box office with a $24.3 million score, bringing its cumulative total up to $118 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.It more than tripled the gross of “My Love,” the melodramatic rom-com that had outpaced it last week for first place, in what was the opening weekend for both films.

Refresh for latest…: Yet another international box office frame was led by Chinese movies in their home market as local May Day holdovers continued play coming off a record holiday session. While a handful of studio titles are doing business in other pockets of the world, we are in something of a holding pattern until majors like the UK and France begin opening in the coming weeks, and as Universal’s F9 is expected to rev up overseas turnstiles for Hollywood starting on May 19.