International Round Up: Progress Slows on International Front

June 25, 2020

Innocence

We had some hopeful signs on the international box office over the past couple of weeks, but the progress has greatly slowed down. This is in part due to the lack of major releases in most markets, but also due in part to theater owners not opening as quickly as some governments are allowing. For example, cinemas in Italy were allowed to open on June 15th, but the vast majority of them remain closed. Furthermore, we are solidly in a feedback loop where the lack of new releases is hurting the box office and the weak box office means studios will be unwilling to release major movies. There are still a few pieces of good news to report around the world though.

On the positive side, South Korea was solid with a box office of $4.05 million for its top ten, which is nearly identical to last week’s $4.04 million result. Innocence remained in first place with $1.10 million on 950 screens over the weekend for a total of $4.21 million after 12 days of release. Onward debuted in second place with a disappointing result of $914,000 on 1,138 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $1.19 million. The film is already available on Disney+ and, while the service isn’t available in South Korea, some customers may be getting around the internet roadblocks to see it online.

There’s more good news from Japan, which is really starting to open up with its top ten earning $1.48 million this past weekend, up 178% from last weekend. This includes Dolittle, which earned $1.38 million in 347 theaters, which is nearly all of the theaters currently open in that market. This debut isn’t great, but it isn’t too far off what we would have expected had the pandemic never happened. In other words, the box office in Japan is returning to normal and other studios can start thinking about releasing larger films there.

Hong Kong also showed strong growth with the top ten up 17% from last weekend at $725,000. The box office was led by Onward, which had the biggest opening in the post-lockdown era with $345,000 on 147 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $392,000, including the previous week’s previews.

Love Sarah rose to the top of the chart in New Zealand with $78,000 in 77 theaters for a two-week total of $135,000. This helped the top ten rise by 34% to $246,000 this weekend. The box office market for New Zealand is about 1% the size of the United States, so this is still far lower than it needs to be, but the growth is an encouraging sign. It might be enough for a major studio to release a potential blockbuster here.

Taiwan’s top ten also grew, albeit by just 5% to $361,000. This market never closed, so it will rely on potential blockbusters being released to truly return to normal.

On the other hand, Germany’s top ten was down 8% to $386,000. However, there were no new releases this weekend, or in the past few weeks, so audiences are growing tired of the same films being shown over and over again. The overall box office is just under half of what it was this weekend last year, so a big new releases could go a long way to bringing the box office back to where it needs to be. The Netherlands were also down, but just 2%, with the top ten pulling in $565,000. Australia dipped 6% with its top ten earning $150,000. Both of these declines are in line with what we would see week-to-week under normal circumstances. The same can’t be said in Iceland, as its top ten was down 32% to just $30,000.

Filed under: International Box Office, Onward, Dolittle, Love Sarah, Gyeolbaek