The newly combined Paramount-Warner Bros merger (aka Skydance) saw its second back-to-back No. 1 weekend win at the global box office with DC’s Clayface which filed $43M WW.
Is this the new norm? A continual weekend win by Skydance? Should the platinum studio Disney be worried?
Even if A24’s You Can See Everything pops to No. 1 over the dead zone of Halloween stateside, Warner Bros Animation’s The Cat in the Hat will bring Skydance back to No. 1 over the first frame in November.
Though the global opening here for Clayface is under the $45M hoped for, it’s still solid for the net $44M costing feature (before P&A), especially given its excellent audience exits. That A- is one of a few earned by horror titles, the others being Get Out, Weapons and Obsession. DC Bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran reportedly covered their faces after watching Clayface for the first time, literally scared by all the gross scenes. That’s what fanboys and moviegoers are responding to in the movie.
The global opening here in pure dollars isn’t far from what Universal’s Other Mommy from Blumhouse Atomic Monster did a couple of weeks ago, that being a $45.6M start (but in 50 territories). The foreign start for that D+ horror movie was $17.8M while Clayface here was $19M from 76 territories. Domestic was No. 1 with $24M, over A24’s second frame of 3 hour documentary You Can See Everything. By the way, that Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim co-directed nonfiction film doesn’t start opening abroad until Nov. 12 in Australia, followed by UK on Nov. 20 via A24. Sony is handling the bulk of foreign as Deadline first told you with translated prints being prepped at the time of this report. We hear that Palace Cinemas in Australia just broke the record for their biggest single day of presales ever thanks to You Can See Everything, doubling the chain’s previous record held by Taylor Swift: Eras Tour.
In regards to Clayface‘s territory grosses, it exceeded or met Other Mommy‘s first weekend in the UK ($2.6M), Australia ($1.3M versus $1.1M), France ($1.2M), and Brazil ($879K vs. $751K). Clayface was under Other Mommy in Mexico ($1.4M to $1.9M), Italy ($873K vs $2.2M), Spain ($721K vs. $986K), UAE ($626K versus $658K), Saudi Arabia ($561K versus $601K) and Taiwan ($404K vs. $424K). Other Mommy didn’t open in Germany or Korea yet as it respectively opens there on Oct. 29 and Nov. 18, but Clayface did $593K in Germany and $589K in Korea.
Meanwhile, in reported grosses, Clayface‘s opening in Italy beat Supergirl‘s first weekend of $717,7K and Korea’s first weekend of $422K.
Speaking of Other Mommy, the Universal title’s third global weekend came in at $9.2M WW in 68 territories ($5.3M int’l, $3.85M domestic) with a strong No. 2 opening in Poland of $464K behind local hit Lalka and ahead of Black Phone 2, Smile and M3GAN. Also, France had a solid hold of $900K for a cume of $2.5M above Black Phone at the same point in time. Global running cume is $94.8M with $43.3M from offshore and $51.5M stateside.
Paramount Warner Bros can call dibs on No. 2 at the global weekend B.O. with the second frame of Legendary/Capcom’s Street Fighter with $16.8M WW ($8.2M from 65 markets for a foreign cume of $32.7M) and running global cume of $76.3M. As we told you, North America ate floor with a -72% plummet of $8.6M. The feature take of the hit 1980s videogame held onto its Imax screens around the globe which delivered $2.5M for a near $12M running circuit cume. Top second frame holdovers for Street Fighter were UK ($1.3M, -58%, No. 4, $5.6M cume); Australia ($800K, -45%, No. 2 and $2.6M cume), France ($744K, -33%, No. 9 and $2.2M cume), Mexico ($659K, -63%, No. 4 and near $3M cume), and Germany ($485K, -42%, No. 9 and running cume of $1.6M).
Laika’s stop motion animated pic Wildwood minted $11.3M stateside with another $3M in its foreign launch from 11 territories via FilmNation for a $14.3M WW start. UK looks to be landing an opening around $1.4M after a Friday-Saturday take of $931K that’s 15% ahead of Kubo and the Two Strings, and 22% ahead of The Boy and the Heron. Black Bear is handling the UK release. Kismet has Australia which is shaping up for a $567K opening, ahead of Laika’s Missing Link, Kubo and the Two String and The Boxtrolls. NZ is filing $58K. Notorious in Italy is looking at a $393K opening, with a Saturday $142,5K take ahead of Missing Link, Kubo and Boxtrolls. Wildwood via Beta Film in Spain is seeing a $292K opening from 232 cinemas, with an 8.4 rating on FilmAffinity, making it the highest rated release YTD on the platform. Netherlands via The Searchers is looking at $168K with a Saturday gross ahead of ParaNorman, Kubo, Missing Link and Coraline. Croatia is $25K, Serbia $6K, South Africa $33K, Singapore, $29K and Italian speaking Switzerland is $2K. Wildwood‘s foreign rollout continues next weekend across Latin America, the Middle East, the Nordics and additional Eastern European markets. Mexico alone was Laika’s second-largest grossing market for the 2024 re-release of Coraline.
Sony/Constantin’s Resident Evil posted a sixth global weekend of $13.3M WW ($10.3M foreign, $3M stateside), and a running global of $384.5M. Foreign gross alone is $230.8M. China alone counts $65M. Pic is still in play at 67 markets on 26,400 screens.
Amazon MGM Studio’s Verity saw $7.2M abroad from 79 markets and another $3M stateside for a $10.2M WW for fourth frame that takes the worldwide tally to $162.7M ($91.2M foreign, $71.5M domestic). Newest opening was in South Korea with $179K at 445 screens, surpassing the lifetime of It Ends With Us ($124K) there to become the biggest Colleen Hoover feature adaptation of all-time. Holdovers include Germany ($1.3M at 626 screens, -30% ranked No. 2 with cume near $12M), UK ($861K at 531 screens, -41%, with a $14.4M tally), Australia ($577K this weekend from 274 screens, down -38% and ranked #3. The cume is now $8.1M) and Brazil ($525K from 900 screens, -56% for a No. 2 rank and near $10M cume).