‘Tenet’ Rises To $130M+ Overseas; Crosses $150M WW; ‘Mulan’ Kicks Off With $6M In Handful Of Markets – International Box Office

TUESDAY UPDATE, with Tenet actuals: Due to the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., Warner Bros held off reporting Tenet actuals until late Tuesday, and included the Monday international box office numbers. The weekend came in at $57.8M in 44 offshore markets, and adding in grosses from Monday, the overseas cume $132.1M. China had made $33.4M through Monday; with Tuesday estimates from Maoyan, that rose to $36.3M. The global cume through Monday crossed $150M to reach $152.3M.

Lead markets are China as noted above, followed by the UK at $13.6M through Monday, France ($11.1M), Germany ($8.9M) and Korea ($8.6M through Tuesday). Hong Kong and Qatar get the Christopher Nolan thriller this weekend.

PREVIOUS, SUNDAY: Christopher Nolan’s Tenet added a further estimated $58.1M at the international box office this weekend, taking the overseas cume on the Warner Bros title to $126M after two sessions. With the time-bending film debuting in the U.S. this frame, the estimated worldwide total is $146.2M. The global weekend figure of $78.3M includes previews and covers 46 markets on 52,913 screens. The offshore holdovers dropped 36%.

Tenet, the first major studio release of the pandemic era, began international rollout last weekend in 40 offshore markets and Canada (the latter’s previews, we understand, have been rolled up into the domestic number this weekend which is also a four-day North American holiday). 

Yesterday, Tenet crossed $100M overseas (see Friday/Saturday updates here).

Six new overseas markets released in the sophomore session including China and Russia. The China launch came in at $30M — the low end of the range we provided during the weekend — and landed No. 2 behind local smash The Eight Hundred. It was a close race (less than $3M separated the films), but the Tenet start reps the best debut of a Nolan film in the market. Nolan’s films tend to leg out and Tenet leads presales in China on Monday though it is currently jockeying with The Eight Hundred during the week (the latter film grossed about $350M through Sunday). Disney’s Mulan arrives in China next Friday. It’s going to be a crowded market leading into the National Day celebration.

This weekend, Mulan began a soft theatrical rollout in the markets where Disney+ is not a factor. The live-action update on the animated classic grossed an estimated $5.9M from nine hubs, landing No. 1 in the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. In both Singapore and Thailand it scored the best opening weekend of 2020. The UAE weekend was 6% ahead of Cinderella. In Taiwan, it bowed No. 2 with $1.2M.

Turning back to Tenet, the lead markets are now China ($30M), the UK ($13.1M), France ($10.7M), Germany ($8.7M) and Korea ($8.2M). And, in a win for IMAX, the format had its biggest global box office weekend ever in September with Tenet taking $11.1M from 1,168 screens in 43 markets, 14.2% of the overall global weekend. The worldwide IMAX cume is now $16.3M, more than 11% of the movie’s total to date. Of that, Tenet grossed $5.3M from 649 screens in China — nearly 18% of the nationwide gross, despite IMAX theaters only accounting for 1% of screens.

Warners continues to play close to the vest with full reporting on the movie that has been seen as a salve to turnstile ills over the past several unprecedented months. However, we do have further market breakdowns this weekend. Russia launched to $2.6M, lower than where some were seeing it, but still with parts of the market closed. Tenet was No. 1 with over 70% of the share. The best hold was in Germany at No. 1 with over 50% share of the total market; IMAX and 70mm were both up from last weekend. The UK had Tenet as a dominant No. 1 with nearly 70% share of the market. In France, Tenet was No. 1 again, with a 35% share. Behind the Top 5 cumes laid out above, are Taiwan ($6.3M), Spain ($5.2M), Australia ($4.52M), Italy ($4.5M) and Netherlands ($4.1M) to round out the Top 10. Hong Kong, Israel and Qatar bow in the coming frame followed by Japan and Mexico the next week.

Elsewhere, After We Collided, the sequel to Voltage Pictures’ indie YA hit After, is looking like a nice success story in the reopening process and before it hits domestic. The weekend came in at $10M+ from 16 markets and was led by Italy at $2.6M..

Disney/20th’s The New Mutants, which began slow rollout last weekend, picked up another $4.2M while expanding into a further 30 markets. The international cume is now $8.5M for $20.1M global.

And, Solstice Studios’ Unhinged has now grossed $13M in 28 markets led by Australia ($2.4M), France ($2M), the UK ($1.9M), Netherlands ($1.5M) and Germany ($1.2M). The updated international cume on STX’s Greenland is estimated at $11.5M after a $624K frame at 1,136 locations. WB’s Harry Potter 3D release in China has grossed $27.3M, Scoob! is at $19.6M overseas and the Inception reissue at $9.1M.