Part Two Nears $500M Worldwide Box Office, Surpasses 2021 Movie

With a solid offshore hold, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is closing in on $500M globally. The overseas weekend brought in $51.2M across 73 markets, a 40% drop versus last session (-37% excluding China). The international box office cume through Sunday is $289.4M, and worldwide the running total is $494.7M. The latter figure means the film has already surpassed Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune worldwide.

Internationally in like-for-like markets and at today’s exchange rates, the Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment sequel is tracking 67% ahead of 2021’s Dune, 47% bigger than Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, 20% over Godzilla Vs Kong, 7% above Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and 3% ahead of both Ready Player One and The Batman.

Japan was the new bow this session with $1.7M including previews; that’s 22% above the opening weekend of Dune. 

Villeneuve recently visited China in support of Dune 2, and the sophomore frame there added $9.8M for a local cume of $36.1M. In only 10 days of release, Part Two surpassed the cume of Dune the first and has also become the top imported film of the year as well as the biggest ever in China for Villeneuve and Timothée Chalamet.

Elsewhere, third weekend drops were terrific in a number of markets including Holland (-24%), Singapore (-24%), Sweden (-25%), Germany (-27%), Norway (-29%), Austria (-30%), New Zealand (-31%), Finland (-32%), Taiwan (-32%), Thailand (-32%), Korea (-33%), UK, (-34%), Belgium (-34%), Denmark (-34%), Philippines (-34%), Australia (-35%), Poland (-36%), Hong Kong (-37%) and Brazil (-37%).

Shot in IMAX, the movie has now grossed $104M globally in the format; the 15^th IMAX title to surpass the milestone and the 7^th fastest to do so. The international total for the weekend was $11.4M for a cume to date of $54M. In China, the weekend in IMAX was $3.6M, representing a massive 35.5% of the total there and pushing the cume in the market to $12.3M. In Japan, 50 IMAX screens generated a fantastic 45% of the opening weekend total.

The other major player this session — Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 — had a $39.6M international weekend as staggered offshore rollout continues. The holdover drop was 45% and the international cume through Sunday is $68.8M for $176.5M global. Particularly noteworthy, China has had three days of previews ahead of the March 22 release and now counts $8.8M (this is not included in the above totals). Also, of the second wave markets, eight scored the biggest opening of the franchise and five set a record for a DWA bow including previews. 

New markets this session included Mexico at a clear No. 1. The total there including previews is $13.6M. Germany bowed to $4.2M in line with the first Kung Fu Panda and more than double KFP3 excluding previews to set the second-best opening of the year – and with school holidays ahead.

India opened with $1.5M across 1,295 screens. On Friday, KFP4 scored the 2^nd biggest opening day ever for a Universal animation, 3^rd biggest DWA opening day ever, 8^th biggest opening day for a Hollywood animation and 2^nd biggest opening day of the franchise. The performance through Sunday is in line with KFP3 and Ice Age 5 and well above KFP1, KFP2 and other DWA titles.

Elsewhere, KFP4 in Vietnam surpassed the lifetimes of Frozen 2, Elemental, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, Despicable Me 3, Secret Life of Pets, Beauty and the Beast, Despicable Me 2, Puss in Boots 2, Sing and KFP3 this week. After delivering the biggest ever opening for an animation in the market, the film has now grossed $3.7M, performing in line with HTTYD3 and more than double all other key comps at the same point.

Markets still to come include Brazil, Italy and China this week, followed by France, Australia, the UK and Korea through late March and early April.

The Top 5 to date are Mexico ($13.6M), Spain ($5.1M), Germany ($4.2M), Indonesia ($3.8M) and Vietnam ($3.7M).

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Bob Marley: One Love (PAR): $2.9M intl weekend (51 markets); $75.8M intl cume/$169.2M global
Poor Things (DIS): $2.1M intl weekend (47 markets); $78.2M intl cume/$112.6M global
Migration (UNI): $2.1M intl weekend (80 markets); $159.4M intl cume/$286M global
Anyone But You (SNY): $1.7M intl weekend (45 markets); $126.7M intl cume/$214.8M global
Mean Girls (PAR): $130K intl weekend (14 markets); $32M intl cume/$104.4M global