Joker’s Reign Continues

Here is the rewritten article:

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

‘Folie’ opens with half the box office of 2019’s ‘Joker’

UPDATED: Warner Bros and DC Films may be celebrating Joker: Folie À Deux opening at the top of the worldwide box office with a confirmed $114.8m – but those numbers are well down on the launch of Joker exactly five years ago.

The Todd Phillips-directed sequel has debuted in North America with a confirmed $37m, adding in $77m from 76 international markets.

In 2019, the first weekend of October saw Joker launch with $96.2m in North America, plus $152.2m from overseas markets, and thus delivering a worldwide debut of $248.4m. The sequel’s opening tally is just below half that launch number.

Folie À Deux is the top US film in 75 of its 76 international launch markets. Global box office at Imax screens is $10m – 8.3% of the total.

In terms of the film’s local market share, Latin America leads with Folie À Deux achieving a 67% share of total weekend box office.

Measured in simple box office terms, Europe leads, and four of the film’s top five markets are from the region.

UK/Ireland leads the charge on Folie À Deux with a confirmed $7.6m opening, and a 72% share. In local currency, the £5.7m debut compares with a £12.6m launch for Joker in UK and Ireland five years ago.

Germany ranks second with a $5.7m opening for Folie À Deux, and Italy is third with $5.4m. Right behind is top Latin market Mexico with an estimated $5.3m, and France rounds out the top five territories with $4.8m.

The next tier of international markets are Brazil ($4.3m), South Korea ($3.7m), Australia ($3.0m), Spain ($2.9m), and Poland ($1.7m). Top Middle East markets are close behind: Saudi Arabia ($1.7m) and United Arab Emirates ($1.5m).

Five years ago, Joker went on to reach $1.08bn worldwide. Sequels tend to see relatively bigger openings and weaker sustains, with fans of the original rushing out in the first week of release to see the follow-up – so if Folie À Deux follows the typical sequel box office revenue curve, this is bad news for Warner Bros, indicating a final total below $500m.

Folie À Deux opens in Japan on October 11 and China on October 16 – two significant territories that might add some better news into the mix.

Also for Warner Bros, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pushed through $400m worldwide at the weekend, and has now reached $402.6m. The film ranks eighth globally for the year to date, and will soon overtake seventh-placed Bad Boys: Ride Or Die ($404.2m). Inside Out 2 leads this year with $1.69bn worldwide, and is the eighth biggest film of all time.

‘The Wild Robot’ expand again – hits $100m worldwide

UPDATED: The third week of release for Universal’s The Wild Robot sees the DreamWorks animation add another six international markets, bringing the total to 36. The international territories delivered a confirmed $13.1m at the weekend, dropping just 10% in holdover markets.

In North America, the film’s second week of release saw a 48% drop, with estimated takings of $18.7m.

Cumulative totals are $64.2m for North America and $36.6m for international. Those numbers combine to push The Wild Robot past the $100m milestone, with a $100.7m total.

Top opening markets were Germany (a confirmed $2.21m, capitalising on the local Day of German Unity holiday) and South Korea (an estimated $1.7m).

In cumulative totals, Mexico leads the international pack with $7.9m so far, ahead of Australia ($7.6m) and China ($6.6m).

This coming week sees The Wild Robot land in four major international markets – France, Brazil, Italy and Spain – with UK/Ireland to follow a week later, and Japan next February.

Universal is comping The Wild Robot against DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys and Illumination’s Migration. Those films respectively reached $250.4m and $299.9m lifetime worldwide, and The Wild Robot looks well on course to exceed those numbers.

While The Wild Robot is now past $100m, Paramount’s Transformers One will very soon achieve the same feat. The animation added an estimated $13.2m at the weekend, taking the total to $97m.

Chinese holiday releases flood global top 10 chart

Five new Chinese films – all released last Monday or Tuesday to take advantage of the National Day holiday week – have entered Comscore’s worldwide top 10 box office chart, based on weekend takings only.

The second instalment in Chen Kaige’s patriotic The Volunteers trilogy leads the charge with a reported $45.1m for the weekend period and $111.3m in total. The film is known variously as The Volunteers: To The War 2 and The Volunteers: The Battle Of Life And Death.

Ranking second among the new Chinese titles is Wu Bai’s Tiger Wolf Rabbit, with $18.7m for the weekend period and $47.1m in total. The crime drama sees the collision of three characters, each of whom have lost a child.

Jackie Chan action comedy Panda Plan, directed by Zhang Luan, comes next, with $13.8m for the weekend and $27.1m overall. The film sees Chan’s character involved in a rescue operation of a beloved zoo panda named Hu Hu.

Landing in fourth place in China for the weekend is Hong Kong action thriller High Forces, starring Andy Lau as an international security expert hijacked by gunmen on the first flight of an Airbus A380 airliner. Coincidentally, his ex-wife and blind daughter are among the passengers. The Oxide Pang-directed film opened with $10.6m for the weekend period and $25.1m in total.

China’s