Refresh for latest…: This was a busy weekend at the international box office with the sophomore session of Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil seeing a 43% drop to lead studio pics at $64.3M in 100% of its offshore footprint. Behind the sorceress, Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Bron Studios’ Joker continued its laugh-a-minute run to add $47.8M (just 38% off the previous weekend), becoming the No. 3 biggest DC movie ever overseas with $571.5M to date for $849.1M global — where it is also the the top-grossing R-rated movie ever (at current rates) and the first to cross the eight century mark.
But leading all offshore play is China’s Better Days at an estimated $83M. This is particularly notable since the film had been a casualty of a censorship crackdown this summer and had only a three-day release date heads-up for the local distributor.
In other new play, Terminator: Dark Fate sealed $12.8M in its early debuts. Those include France, Germany and the UK along with Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The Paramount/Skydance pic is released overseas by Disney and jumped on some offshore markets to capitalize on upcoming holidays. The wider release is next session (outside Japan, Taiwan and Poland).
The early result on the Linda Hamilton-starrrer is lower than might have been hoped, but there are holidays coming up in the key markets that bowed this frame. Joker is also simply a wild card and is still pulling remarkable numbers in Europe. Next week, when Joker may (or clearly may not have) played out his hand, Dark Fate is hoping for growth.
Maleficent, meanwhile, held well during the midweeks with families coming out. Particularly, the midweek play in China, where the debut last session was inauspicious, was solid. The international cume is now $228.1M for $293.5M worldwide.
Breakdowns on the films above and more are being updated below.
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