‘Ghost In The Shell’ Rises To $93M Offshore; ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Tops $977M Global International Box Office – Deadline

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: This frame saw the first shift at the top of the international box office since Disneys Beauty And The Beast initially twirled through offshore turnstiles last month. With a $36.1M weekend, Belle and her beau dipped from their No. 1 perch to No. 3 in the session, trailing Ghost In The Shell ($41.3M) and The Boss Baby ($37.5M).

But theres no cause to weep for the star-crossed lovers and their enchanted pals. In its 4th weekend at the worldwide ball, BATB waltzed to a global cume of $977.4M, poised to cross $1B in the coming days. The Bill Condon-directed film also rose to $545.1M overseas, helping The Walt Disney Studios clock $1B+ in 2017 overseas receipts with $1.007B to date.

Meanwhile, coming off of a weekend largely led by China, Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliances Ghost In The Shell emerged as the No. 1 film overseas this frame. In the Middle Kingdom, the Scarlett Johansson-starrer earned $21.4M higher than the actress 2014 actioner Lucy which bowed to $20M there.

In the Japanese launch, Ghost came at No. 1 in with $3.2M. While the film has been decently received there, and the market is slow burn, neither it nor China are expected to fully bail Ghost out.

The international cume is now $92.8M and some industry estimates see it landing between $150M and $170M at the end of the day. Particularly with The Fate Of The Furious revving up in China on Friday and then in Japan on April 28. Beauty And The Beast hits the latter on April 21.

DreamWorks Animation/Fox

In other weekend activity, Sony Pictures Animations Smurfs: The Lost Village added $22M for a $42.1M offshore total thus far; and Warner Bros Kong: Skull Island pounded out another $16M for an overseas cume of $377.8M and a global warchest of $534.4M.

Also from Warner Bros, new entry Going In Style is coming in fashionably versus some comps and opened to $4.3M in 32 markets.

Setting a new milestone, Lionsgates six-time Oscar winner La La Land has reached $287.8M internationally to surpass the lifetime of The Hunger Games.

Beginning on Wednesday this week, Universals Fate Of The Furious gets off the starting block, muscling into eight offshore markets including Australia, France, Korea and Belgium. By the weekend it will be in 62 and on 688 IMAX screens internationally; 392 of those in China.

Breakdowns on the above films have been updated below.

NEW GOING IN STYLE

Warner Bros

Russia opened to $800K at No. 4 to more than double the results of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, followed by the UK with $688K on 454. The UAE knocked off $520K on 45 for No. 2 and surpassing all comps. Holland topped Last Vegas by 11% with $320K including sneaks and more than doubled Luc Bessons The Family which WB is using as a comp. Brazil lifted $243K on 121 to top the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel sequel by 77%.

Releases this week include Spain and Germany. Australia and Mexico go the following frame.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS GHOST IN THE SHELL

Paramount

In the Middle Kingdom, where sci-fi does not over-index, the Rupert Sanders-helmed movie made $21.4M at 7,600 locations. Thats bigger than Johansson vehicle Lucy which bowed to $20M in 2014 and went on to $44.8M there. The film has a 6.6 rating on Douban and mid-weeks will count as The Fate Of The Furious will obliterate anything in its path when it opens on Friday.

In Japan, from whence the source material hails, the film opened to $3.2M at 327 cinemas. As Deadline reported last week, the whitewashing controversy seems to have sidestepped Japan because audiences are used to watching western actors, and word of mouth appears decent. While Japan is a leggy market of big multiples, Ghost also faces F8 there beginning April 28, just after Beauty And The Beast on April 21.

Sources are pegging the overseas final on Ghost in the $160M neighborhood.

In IMAX, Ghost In The Shell took $5.5M global for a $13.5M cume; the international weekend was $4.4M including $2.5M from 389 Chinese screens.

The Top 5 overall markets on Ghost are China ($21.4M), Russia ($8M), Korea ($5.5M), France ($5.3M) and the UK ($5.2M).

THE BOSS BABY

Fox

Despite warm, sunny weather in the UK, families went out for Alec Baldwins tough guy kid with $9.9M at No. 1 (including previews) and 49% bigger than The Croods, 47% bigger than Trolls.

Mexico held No. 1 in the 2nd session with $3.4M and a 40% drop ($12M cume). France likewise was No. 1 for the 2nd frame in a row, topping local newcomer A Bras Ouverts with $3.2M and a 37% drop from open ($9.8M cume). The next best results were in Brazil ($2.1M/$6.2M cume); Germany ($1.9M/$5M cume); and Australia ($1.8M/$8.8M cume up 21% versus last weekend).

The lead market remains Russia at $24M. In comparable markets and at todays exchanges, The Boss Baby is cooing louder than Trolls (+63%), Rio (+40%), The Croods (+20%) and Sing (+14%).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Disney

In 55 material markets, BATB dipped 46% in its 4th session with strong holds in several plays including Belgium (-7%), Poland (-16%), Germany (-27%), the Netherlands (-34%), Brazil (-38%), Australia (-39%) and China (-39%). The Emma Watson/Dan Stevens romantic tuner has clocked No. 1 for four weeks in a row in Germany, Korea, Austria, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Switzerland and the UK (the latter holds No. 1 based on this weekends FSS but Boss Baby is No. 1 with previews included). Other No. 1 holds include Australia, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia and New Zealand.

In Europe, the cume to date of $217M has surpassed the total regional runs of Deadpool, Zootopia, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad.

Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($85.3M), UK ($73.2M), Brazil ($36M), Korea ($33.9M) and Mexico ($28.3M).

SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE

Sony

Major hubs on the earlier films included a mix of Germany, China, France, the UK and Brazil. Of those, only the UK had opened through last weekend on The Lost Village. This frame added Brazil ($2.2M), France ($1.9M with previews), Mexico ($1.6M), Germany ($1.5M with previews) and Italy ($1M).

The diminutive Peyo characters have a sizable international brand, but saw a drop-off between films one and two which legged out to $421M and $277M, respectively, at offshore turnstiles. There have of course been big currency swings between 2013 and today, and while some watchers are underwhelmed by the perf so far, Sony is where it expected to be given the strong competition.

With Easter and spring holidays coming up, the studio is anticipating runway on the pic which has a reported negative cost of $60M and a global P&A less than the $100M spent on the profitable Angry Birds Movie. China is due on April 21, the last film made $22M there.

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Warner Bros

In the 3rd session, China added $11.3M for No. 2 behind newcomer Ghost In The Shell. This week, the movie from Jordan Vogt-Roberts crossed the 1B RMB mark and now has a local Middle Kingdom cume of $161M (1.11B RMB). Rounding out the Top 5 markets are the UK ($18.6M), Mexico ($13.9M), Japan ($13.8M) and Korea ($12.1M).

SABANS POWER RANGERS The Lionsgate title grossed an additional $6.1M from 75 markets this frame, bringing the international cume to $42.1M. The biggest new play was France with $1.3M. The film is playing younger than expected in Europe with only the UK in the Top 5 out of the majors. Currently, the No. 1 play is Mexico with $5.3M, followed by the UK at $4.9M, Brazil ($4.8M), Malaysia ($2.7M) and Australia ($2.4M). The kids morph into their next major with Korea on April 20, followed by hopeful key markets China (May 5) and Japan (July 15).

LIFE

Sony Pictures

SING

Universal

MOANA Coming out of its 19th weekend in offshore release, Disneys Moana has reached $386.1M at the international box office and $634.8M worldwide. This frame was worth $2.3M overseas in Japan which has now risen to $39.4M. That makes Japan the No. 1 offshore market, overtaking Frances $35.4M.

GET OUT

Universal

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

20th Century Fox

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'Ghost In The Shell' Rises To $93M Offshore; 'Beauty And The Beast' Tops $977M Global International Box Office - Deadline