rewrite this title ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ Hits $1.3B, ‘Housemaid’ Paul Feig’s 2nd Highest Grossing Pic, ’28 Years Later: Bone Temple’ $31M WW Debut – Global Box Office

The MLK weekend box office might have been sleep in the U.S., but overseas, Disney continued to reign with milestones, Zootopia 2, as we just told you becoming the highest grossing MPA animated movie ever with $1.7 billion, but also James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash rising to $1.3B. Between the two pics, Disney has had the No. 1 release at the global box office for the last eight weekends.

Sony went largely global in its debut on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is soft stateside with $13M for the 3-day and $15M for the 4-day, but can relish No. 1 openings in the UK with $4.6M and Mexico with $1.5M. The global weekend, with the domestic $15M 4-day, stands at $31.2M (a fourth place take among the major studios worldwide) with $16.2M abroad coming from 10,1K-plus screens in 61 markets. 28 Years Later opened to No. 1 in the UK with $6.4M back in mid-June, while it was No. 2 in Mexico with $2.7M ($3.3M with previews). Horror, depending on its subgenre, plays differently in myriad parts of the world, i.e. gore can work in Germany, but largely not Latin America (with the exception of Mexico). Supernatural horror rallies in the Catholic countries, Philippines and Asia. The last 28 Years grossed $80.8M abroad –$21M of that in in the UK-unadjusted for inflation for a global take of $151.3M. Next market for Bone Temple is South Korea.

While the production cost floated out there is $63M net thanks to Uk tax credits (hearing TSG is covering half the pic’s budget), and another $70M P&A to market, the question is whether this part two profits. I’m told that director Danny Boyle, scribe Alex Garland and producer Peter Rice collectively get around $15M per picture. The notion per sources is that these movies could be made for significantly more, but alas the financial mishap that bidding wars create. As we told you, a great Cinemascore stateside at A- on Bone Temple, but it’s very hard to comeback and build an audience after the previous movie was received in an alright way. Perhaps it was better to date this movie out much later to give the 28 Years Later some momentum on streaming.

Major studio global standings (list will update when regional pics roll in):

As we told you stateside it’s the champ for the fifth weekend in a row. International had a -33% frame decline with holds in Germany (-14%), Spain (-17%), France (-28%), Australia (-33%), China (-33%), Brazil (-35%), UK (-36%), Korea (-43%), Mexico (-44%), Italy (-47%), and Japan (-47%). China leads territory cumes with $155.4M with France at $98.9M, Germany at $80.3M, UK at $51.4M and Korea at $51.1M. The pic in China was No. 3 behind Zootopia 2 which ruled and local Sam Quah crime movie The Fire Raven (which has a running cume of $52.3M).

2. Housemaid 71 terr, Dom $10.1M, Int’l $26.6M WW $36.7M Dom cume $108.7M, Int’l cume $138.6M WW Cume 247.3MAs we told you in the domestic column, the movie is now Paul Feig’s second highest grossing movie ever after Bridesmaids ($324.8M unadjusted for inflation, etc). The UK dipped -17% with around $3.9M for a running cume of $30.4M via Lionsgate UK. The dark comedic thriller was also the No. 1 in Brazil via IDC. The Housemaid in Latin America is even to slightly up, we hear. Muy bien.

3. Zootopia 2 52 terr, Dom $12M Intl $24.3M WW $36.3M Dom Cume $393.2M Int’l Cume $1.313B WW Cume $1.7BStill No. 1 in China and Japan. International weekend eases -24% with strongest holds in New Zealand (+41%), Czech Rep (+13%), Sweden (+11%), Hungary (+7%), Norway (+3%), Spain (+2%), Austria (-0%), Denmark (-8%), Portugal (-8%), Germany (-10%), Finland (-10%), Taiwan (-15%), France (-16%), Poland (-17%), Brazil (-17%), Netherlands (-18%), Turkey (-19%), Australia (-19%) and UK (-20%).

4. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Dom $15M, Int’l $16.2M, WW $31.2M

Misc:

Anaconda 63 terr, Dom $3.8M Int’l $4M WW $7.8M Dom cume $59.6M Int’l cume $62.3M, WW Cume $122MA fairly packed house at the AMC Grove 7:30PM show last night with a lot activity in that multiplex for what’s a slower holiday weekend than usual. Top markets remain Australia ($9.7 million), UK ($7.1 million), Mexico ($5.0 million), Germany ($3.6 million), Brazil ($3.5 million).

Hamnet 7 terr, Dom $1.62M Int’l $5.1M, WW $6.7M Dom cume $14.9M Int’l Cume $12.9M/ WW Cume $27.8MIt opened to $1.1M No. 7 in Australia above The Favourite, Belfast and more than double Poor Things. The pic opens across 134 screens this weekend, with expansion plans in week 3 when the summer holidays conclude. New Zealand debuted to $198K, No. 2 behind Avatar 3, and ahead of previous comps Conclave and One Battle After Another. Brazil bowed to $300K, No. 7 rank, above A Complete Unknown, The Theory of Everything and The Favourite there. Chile bowed to $75K, No. 6, surpassing the total lifetimes of The Banshees of Inisherin and Belfast after only 3 days. The UK holds with $3.5M and a running total of $11.2M.

Song Sung Blue 58 terr, dom $2.1M Int’l $1.7M, WW $3.8M Dom cume $35.4M Int’l Cume $12.8M, Total $48.2MKorea was the only opening territory with $61K at 128 screens. Australia’s cume at $5.3M surpassed the lifetime totals of We Live In Time and Materialists thanks to an extra $800K for a No. 6 rank.