Worldwide box office April 19-21

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

Horror ‘Abigail’ bites off $15m debut

UPDATE: In a relatively flat week at the global box office, Universal horror Abigail landed as the top new title, with a confirmed $10.3m at the North American box office plus $4.9m in 62 international markets. Numbers combine to deliver a $15.3m opening.

From Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who jointly directed the last two Scream films, Abigail is a horror-thriller hybrid about a group of criminals who kidnap the daughter of a powerful underworld figure and discover she is no normal girl.

Mexico and UK/Ireland proved the top international markets, opening respectively with $849,000 and $729,000. Australia ($416,000) and Germany ($401,000) came next.

Abigail arrives two weeks after Disney’s The First Omen, and follows Black Bear/Neon’s Immaculate and Blumhouse/Lionsgate’s Imaginary – a quartet of genre titles arriving in cinemas in a seven-week period. While the horror genre is proving profitable for US studios, the current market is showing signs of saturation.

‘Back To Black’ cracks global top 10

In its second week of release, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse drama Back To Black has entered the worldwide top 10 chart, landing in ninth place with an estimated $6.4m from 37 international markets. Total after two weekends of play is $16.9m.

Studiocanal reported its markets in detail on Sunday, with figures for Friday and Saturday only, not including estimates for Sunday. At that time, UK/Ireland had reached £5.9m ($7.3m), with a second-weekend decline of just 30% from the opening session.

Germany had reached €2.3m ($2.5m), and Australia had hit Au$1.5m (US$965,000).

Universal reported an estimated $1.4m across its 31 international markets for the whole weekend period, including an $800,000 opening in Italy, and $223,000 for its top holdover market Mexico.

Back To Black premieres in Paris this evening (April 22) ahead of release in France via Studiocanal on Wednesday. Future key markets for Universal include Brazil and Spain (both May) and Japan (November). 

‘Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire’ closes in on $500m total

UPDATE: Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros’ Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire has topped the worldwide box office for the fourth weekend in a row, and has overtaken the $471.1m lifetime total of 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong.

The monster mash-up grossed an estimated $9.5m in North America, down 39%, and a confirmed $22.6m in international markets, dropping 38%. Those are strong holds for a major studio sequel – although the film hardly faced strong opposition from new releases.

Total for The New Empire is $17.16m in North America and a confirmed $315.1m for international. Combining to deliver $486.8m globally. The film should hit $500m at the end of the week.

Helping The New Empire reach these heights is China, where Legendary East distributes, and where the film returned to the top spot again at the weekend. Total in China is now $119.6m.

India is another bright spot – the fourth biggest international market after China, Mexico ($30.2m) and UK/Ireland ($15.9m). India’s $14.0m total on the film represents the biggest ever there for a Warner Bros release, beating Joker.

Japan will be the final market to receive The New Empire – the film lands there this coming weekend via Toho.

Among other Godzilla films, The New Empire had previously beaten the $377.3m lifetime total reached by Godzilla: King Of The Monsters in 2019. It remains behind the Gareth Edwards-directed 2014 reboot Godzilla, which reached $525.0m in 2014. Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla delivered $379.0m in 1998. These numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

Also for Warner Bros, Dune: Part Two is closing in on $700m, having added an estimated $7.1m at the weekend, taking the worldwide total to $695.8m. In 2021, Dune reached $407.6m worldwide, so the second part is already 71% ahead of that total.

‘The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ and ‘Spy X Family Code: White’ powered by North America numbers

Joining Back To Black as new entries in the worldwide weekend chart are Guy Ritchie’s Second World War film The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Takashi Katagiri anime Spy X Family Code: White – in both cases thanks to release in North America.

Lionsgate’s domestic release of Ritchie’s film saw an estimated debut of $9.0m, while Comscore reported an estimated $778,000 including previews for 12 international markets. Amazon Prime Video has select international rights on the film, including UK/Ireland.

Crunchyroll’s North American release of Spy X Family Code: White launched with an estimated $4.9m. Toho’s film is also playing in international markets, and the global total is now $59.5m – see chart.

Also for Toho, anime Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram grossed an estimated $11.9m for its second weekend of play in Japan. Total after 10 days of release is $42.5m. 

‘Civil War’ boosted by fresh openings

A24’s Civil War resisted the challenge of new releases to stay top at the North American box office, declining by 56% to deliver second-weekend takings of $11.1m. Domestic total so far is $44.9m.

Fresh openings saw the film deliver an estimated $10.3m across 39 international markets – up from $4.3m in 17 international territories the previous weekend. Civil War opened at the top spot at the weekend in Brazil, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Finland.

International total is now $16.8m, and the global number is $61.7m. The international rollout is ongoing.