Disney’s ‘Snow White’ holds top spot at global box office in tender session; Jason Statham muscles into second place with ‘A Working Man’

Worldwide box office: March 24-30

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates. 

‘Disney’s Snow White’ suffers large drop on second weekend

Despite negligible fresh competition in cinemas for the family audience, Disney’s Snow White has taken a significant tumble at the box office.

In North America, weekend takings fell 66% to an estimated $14.2m. For international, the drop was a gentler 50%, with estimated second-weekend takings of $22.1m.

Worldwide, estimated weekend box office of $36.3m takes the total after a week and a half of play to $143.1m.

For comparison, in June 2023, The Little Mermaid – similarly a Disney live-action remake of an animated film, based on a classic fairy tale – stood at $208.6m worldwide at the same stage of release.

The Little Mermaid went on to achieve a lifetime total of $569.6m, ie 2.7 times its total after two weekends of play, and a similar trajectory would significantly improve the picture for Disney’s Snow White, which has Easter and spring break holidays ahead of it. Fresh competition this coming weekend from Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie may impact, however.

In cumulative, UK/Ireland leads the international pack with $8.7m, ahead of Mexico ($6.9m), Italy ($6.6m), France ($5.5m) and Brazil ($4.5m). The film has over-indexed in Argentina, which is the 10^th-biggest international market for Disney’s Snow White, with $2.3m so far. 

Jason Statham’s ‘A Working Man’ lands with solid $30m

In an industry noted for unpredictable outcomes, a Jason Statham action film might be considered the closest thing to a sure bet. The latest one – A Working Man – has begun with an estimated $30.2m, splitting almost evenly between $15.2m in North America (for Amazon MGM Studios) and $15.0m for 63 international markets.

This compares with a very similar $33.9m worldwide debut – $16.8m in North America and $17.1m for international – for Statham’s The Beekeeper in January 2024.

Both films are directed by David Ayer, and they share producer names with Bill Block, Ayer and Statham.

Among the 41 international territories distributed by Warner Bros International on behalf of Amazon MGM Studios, Germany scored best on A Working Man with an estimated $1.4m, ahead of Australia ($1.m) and Mexico ($1.1m). Statham’s home market – UK/Ireland – came in fourth in this ranking, with an estimated $867,000. Sunny spring weather and FA Cup football matches may have provided distractions.

Among the 22 international markets distributed by Black Bear, China led with an estimated $2.9m, ahead of CIS ($1.8m).

A Working Man is chasing the $162.6m global total achieved by The Beekeeper last year. With a production budget reported at $40m, the film already looks to be on a profitable track.

A Working Man is a Black Bear, Cedar Park, Punch Palace and Balboa production, distributed by Amazon MGM. 

‘Lucifer’ sequel launches with $19m total

L2: Empuraan – sequel to 2019 Indian Malayalam hit Lucifer – has begun with an estimated $19.4m worldwide including previews, according to Comscore.

Director Prithviraj Sukumaran and writer Murali Gopy’s L2: Empuraan is a sequel to political action thriller Lucifer, and toplines Malayalam star Mohanlal as a man leading a double life as an enigmatic leader of a global crime syndicate. The storyline – involving international law enforcement including Interpol, MI6 and the CIA – was originally conceived as a trilogy.

In India, box office for L2: Empuraan has been reported at 186 crores rupees for the first four days worldwide – which converts to $21.7m, ahead of Comscore’s reporting. The film is released in India and 21 other international markets, plus North America, where box office is reported at $2.2m including previews.

A post-credits scene in L2: Empuraan reveals the title for the closing part of the trilogy: L3: The Beginning.

Jesus, Blumhouse and A24 comedy horror battle at North American box office

Joining A Working Man in the North American box office top five are Fathom Events’ The Chosen: Last Supper (Part 1), Universal’s Blumhouse horror The Woman In The Yard and A24’s shadowy comedy horror Death Of A Unicorn. Opening weekend estimated box office for these titles is respectively $11.5m, $9.5m and $5.8m.

The Chosen: The Last Supper is the name for the fifth season of The Chosen, which is created, directed and co-written by Dallas Jenkins, and tells the life story of Jesus of Nazareth. Amazon MGM Studios is distributing theatrically and has a 90-day window to stream the episodes on Prime Video.

Blumhouse psychological horror The Woman In The Yard is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Danielle Deadwyler. Universal reported $9.5m North America box office, which is shown in Comscore’s worldwide chart (see above), but has not yet reported international. International markets so far released include UK/Ireland.

A24’s release of the SXSW-launched Death Of A Unicorn – starring Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Richard E Grant and Tea Leoni – is ahead of the international rollout, which begins April 3.

Landing just outside Comscore’s top 10 worldwide weekend chart is another North American release – GKids’ 4k restoration of Studio Ghibli classic Princess Mononoke, opening with an estimated $4.0m.