Box Office: ‘I.S.S.’ Fails to Launch With $1.2 Million Opening Day, ‘Mean Girls’ on Top

Naman Ramachandran Viacom18 and Marflix’s Bollywood actioner “Fighter” was the highest grossing film of the weekend at the global box office, with box office revenues of $25.1 million, according to data from ComScore. The film, directed by Siddharth Anand, whose previous film, Shah Rukh Khan starrer “Pathaan,” was one of the biggest Indian hits of 2023, stars Bollywood A-listers Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. “Fighter” revolves around the Indian Air Force and released on Thursday, Jan.

Refresh for latest…:We’re still in a holdover pattern for Hollywood at the global and international box office, though milestones continue to be reached on an offshore and worldwide basis for existing releases. Meanwhile, Anyone But You saw an uptick overseas and drops were good for others (including newly-minted Oscar nominees). One new local entry, India’s Fighter, flew to the top of the global weekend chart. 

EXCLUSIVE: Pinar Toprak, the Emmy-nominated composer, conductor and performer who has lent her talents to everything from the Brie Larson-led Captain Marvel to Epic Games’ hit video game Fortnite, has joined Artist International Group for representation in conjunction with her long-time agents, Kraft-Engel Management.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Amid the surfeit of films about women’s rights and men’s abuses of power that have emerged in the wake of the #MeToo reckoning, we haven’t yet seen one quite like “Black Box Diaries.” A tightly wound, heart-on-sleeve procedural documentary, Shiori Ito‘s directorial debut identifies a world of systemic iniquities through the prism of a single, long labored-over case of sexual assault — crucially, the director’s own. That raw first-person perspective, untempered by the interests of another filmmaker and given narrative rigor by Ito’s substantial journalistic skills, makes “Black Box Diaries” not just a damning analysis of patriarchal power structures in contemporary Japan, but a vivid evocation of the day-to-day psychological swings and breaks that come with living as a survivor.

Paramount’s musical biopic Bob Marley: One Love and Sony/Marvel’s Madame Web are expected to provide more pulse to what’s been a very dormant 2024 box office that’s -9% behind last year’s near half billion.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Selome Hailu Viewership of “True Detective: Night Country” saw a 28% increase with its newest installment on Sunday night. After the season premiered with 2 million viewers last week, Episode 2 reached 2.6 million viewers.

EXCLUSIVE: Israel‘s Girl from Oslo director Ofir Lobel has signed for representation with LA outfit Black Box Management.

Reese Witherspoon is sparking a heated debate about whether it’s safe to eat snow after sharing a video of herself making a “Snow Salt Chococinno” on Friday.“Oh my gosh, it’s so good,” she gushed on TikTok after adding salted caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, and cold-brewed coffee to the snow she had scooped off her covered grill.The deluge of concerned comments prompted Witherspoon, 47, to make not one, but three, follow-up TikToks to address worries. In the first, she microwaved the snow to produce clear water in an attempt to combat the “dirty” snow rumors.“So, we’re kind of in the category of, ‘you only live once,’ and it snows maybe once a year here,” Witherspoon explained in the second follow-up clip.

So, here we are in mid-January, and though we’re staring down the barrel of a tough year ahead, it’s not all wintry doom and gloom on an international box office (and combined global) level. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter The “Mean Girls” movie musical topped a sleepy box office as “I.S.S.,” a sci-fi thriller that takes place aboard the International Space Station, misfired in its opening weekend. “Mean Girls” added $11.7 million in its second weekend of release, bringing its domestic tally to $50 million. Ticket sales dropped a steep 59% from its debut.

Jon Hamm has revealed whether he felt any competition with Tom Cruise while the two actors were filming “Top Gun: Maverick.” During his appearance on Friday’s episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” (now streaming on Max), Hamm, 52, said, “What I really learned was that I loved every bit of working with Tom.”“He is the consummate professional. He pushes himself to a level that almost seems superhuman and then invites you,” he continued. “It’s not a competition with him.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to Lenny and Harpo Guit’s new feature “Heads or Fails,” the duo’s follow-up to Sundance comedy “Mother Schmuckers.” Now in post, “Heads or Fails” tells the story of Armande Pigeon, a queen of shenanigans in Brussels who struggles to make ends meet because she can’t stop gambling on everything, always ending up on the wrong side of luck. When she teams up with Ronnie one night, everything changes – they win it all.

Naman Ramachandran Despite a resurgent 2023 for Bollywood both at home and overseas, the industry’s international box office performance is likely to be weaker in 2024, a leading U.K. distributor has said. London-based Pranab Kapadia, a seasoned Bollywood media executive with stints at studios Eros and Zee, now runs U.K.

French cinema saw its fortunes rise at the international box office in 2023 after three difficult Covid-19 and post pandemic years, according to the annual report of export agency Unifrance released on Tuesday.

Michaela Zee “True Detective: Night Country” brought in over 2 million viewers Sunday night when it dropped its first episode on HBO and Max. The Season 4 premiere of HBO’s crime series “True Detective” showed strong performance, “despite airing alongside a close NFL Wild Card game,” according to Warner Bros. Discovery.

Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Heyday Films’ Wonka continues its sweet run, crossing the $500M mark globally this weekend. The worldwide cume through Sunday is $505.3M including $329.1M from the international box office and with Korea, which has a fondness for Hollywood musicals, still to release at the end of the month.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter There’s a new queen bee at the box office. Paramount’s “Mean Girls” musical ruled over the competition with $32 million during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Wonka” has crossed a sweet box office milestone. The fantasy musical, starring Timothée Chalamet as the eccentric chocolatier, surpassed $500 million in global ticket sales. After five weeks on the big screen, “Wonka” has generated $176.2 million domestically and $329.1 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $505.3 million.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Washington Post said the action thriller, starring Jason Statham, has “more zzzzz than bzzzz.”The rom-com “Anyone But You,” which was in third place last week, moved up a notch to second, with $2.1 million in sales.The film stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, who The Hollywood Reporter said “can’t fake the fizz” in the flick, which is based on William Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothing.”Things soured for “Wonka,” which dropped to third, with earnings of $1.8 million. Its star, Timothée Chalamet, was nominated at Jan.