Before the Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie steamy lovefest, Wuthering Heights, takes over the world, this weekend belonged to K Pop group Stray Kids as their concert movie Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience which danced to a $19.1M global win from 61 territories, electrified largely by Universal International. The pic also had bragging rights for the No. 1 pic at the weekend Foreign B.O. with $13.5M, while domestic delivered $5.6M from Bleecker Street‘s new event cinema label Crosswalk at 1,724 locations. CJ has Korea but the movie didn’t fare that well over there with an estimated $227K. Japan didn’t go this weekend. For Uni, it’s their first K Pop movie. In several territories the movie is besting such comps as Taylor Swift / The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, Break The Silence: The Movie, Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Moonage Daydream.
Disney is claiming they’re the No. 1 MPA title for the weekend, (though No. 2 global) with Zootopia 2 which nabbed $16.8M WW ($12.8M overseas, $4M domestic). Zootopia 2 is now the No. 5 MPA release of all-time internationally with $1.388 billion, passing Avengers: Infinity War ($1.374Bn). Total global is $1.8B. Zootopia 2 remains the #1 film for the weekend in China, Japan (non-local) and Czechia.
Meanwhile, The Housemaid flies past $350M worldwide with a $16.5M global weekend ($14.7M abroad, $1.8M North America), with 20th Century Studios’ Send Help (which remained No. 1 stateside with $10M in its second frame) pulled in $16.3M WW for a running global take of $53.7M.
Housemaid‘s global has surpassed that of It Ends With Us ($350M) with $354.7M WW, broken out that’s $231M foreign and $123.7M domestic.
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Imax screens repped 20% around the world for Stray Kids or $3.9M, making it the large format exhibitor’s biggest opening weeked ever for a Korean language film. North America did $2.1M or 38% of the concert pic’s domestic weekend. Imax offshore markets were $1.8M.
Stray Kids sang No. 1 in Mexico ($2.1M) at 558 screens (incl. 24 IMAX and 27 4DX). The weekend performance was above Taylor Swift / The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. Stray Kids has now surpassed the lifetime of Break The Silence: The Movie, Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Moonage Daydream. Germany with $1.6M repped the best debut for a K Pop release ever at 331 screens (including 12 Imax hubs and four 4DX). In the UK & Ireland, the kids were also cool becoming the country’s highest-grossing K-Pop event release ever with $1.4M at 465 screens (incl. 50 IMAX and 35 4DX). IMAX accounted for 19% of the total and Cineworld’s 4DX screens took 7%. Italy took in $800K at 220 screens (including six Imax), surpassing the lifetimes of Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS Permission to Dance on Stage, Break the Silence: The Movie, and BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul. Stray Kids ranked No.3 in the market, behind two local titles, and achieved the highest location average of the top titles ($2.3k). Opening weekend also performed in line with Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour and BTS Yet to Come to the Cinema. Spain was $600K at 184 screens, ranking No. 6. Brazil was $600K at 506 screens (11 Imax), France $500K at 210 screens (8 Imax/3 4DX), Peru was No. 1 with $400K at 78 screens (1 Imax and 1 4DX). Chile was $400K and No. 1 at 132 screens (2 Imax and 9 4DX). Australia saw $400K across 130 screens, achieving the best location average in the market. Imax repped 32% in a massive over-indexing with the weekend result above BTS Yet to Come to the Cinema and the lifetimes of Bring the Soul: The Movie, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul and Break the Silence: The Movie. Argentina was also No. 1 for the K Pop kids with $300K at 120 (two Imax). Reports from theatres there indicate that fans are turning these screenings into parties, featuring singing and dancing, with many seeing the film more than once. Poland ranked No. 1 with $300K at 152 screens (eight Imax). Stray Kids there surpassed the lifetime of Taylor Swift / The Eras Tour.
