KP1025

Minions 2 also benefited from a big Labor Day boost on its 10th weekend, increasing almost 30% FSS from previous weekend. Mario has MDW coming up, but it will be very lucky simply avoiding a big drop against TLM.

Really surprised by the complete lack of interest in TLM. Disney live-action remakes have never done huge numbers in China, but they also have never bombed either. Beauty and the Beast grossed $85 million, Aladdin grossed $53 million, and TLK grossed $120 million. TLM really cannot attract even a small percentage of that audience to come back?

Jurassic World is still very solid and much better than JP3 for me. Not nearly as well crafted as the original, but it is just such a fun romp from start to finish. It's the only one from the new trilogy I care to rewatch.

Probably not for a very long time, at least until inflation makes $1 billion more commonplace. 2019 was incredibly stacked thanks to Disney deciding to drop all their biggest blockbusters in succession. The number of remaining franchises that can guarantee a gross over $1 billion are pretty low now.

I think Disney's prospects there will continue to be depressed unless they fundamentally change Disney+. Something like at least 6+ months of exclusivity from the actual release date in market (not from the global launch). What's strange is how Disney isn't even trying to salvage its traditionally biggest OS market (they must be aware how much money they are leaving on the table). Disney should just sell distribution rights to Toho like Universal at this point.

Agreed. I think in leggy markets like SK and Japan, the presence of Disney+ itself is also a big detriment to the box office. These are markets where audiences don't mind waiting months to see a film in theaters, especially Japan. Now that audiences have been conditioned to expect a theatrical release to drop on streaming within 3 months, I think a sizeable portion have decided they would just wait to watch for free (even more so if reviews are not amazing). This seems to affect family films disproportionately too due to the price of taking a family to the movies. Before the advent of streaming platforms, you either bought tickets to watch a film in theaters or bought the Blu-ray/DVD 3-6 months later.

In theory, fairly tale musicals should have great WOM in both SK and Japan (I believe that's why Aladdin and the Frozens did so well there). But then again, Beauty and the Beast grossed much less than Aladdin in SK despite having a similar performance in Japan.

I'm not sure about that. The largest demographic for Mario was also young, male, and Latino. There's a lot of crossover appeal with the Fast & Furious audience.

Looks like that streak dies with Fast X since forecasts are predicting not too much higher than $100 million in China.

I wonder if the rumored abrupt ending of Fast X will result in poor WOM. The trailer doesn't sell the film as just a Part 1 of now a trilogy.

That explains the big surge in the morning which died off by the late afternoon.

That could also explain why Conan is seeing an increase too, albeit a small one. The increase for Mario seems too big to be just regular stabilization, but I could be wrong.

I think max $50 million more from Japan, more likely $40 million (which would be a finish just over Frozen 2’s ¥13.37 billion). Domestic probably another $40 million too. OS-Japan was about $18 million this weekend so maybe $60 million more there factoring heavy competition incoming.

$1,184,982, total up to $17,144,971.

x = 100% Sold Out △= 90% Sold Out ○ = 50% Sold Out

That math doesn't add up for Mario. $1 million Thursday would give it $522.9 million total and a weekly of $23.3 million.

Frozen should be ¥25.5B http://www.kogyotsushin.com/archives/alltime/

Hard to believe this is the same franchise that had two films gross almost $400 million in China back to back.

I wonder how they will explain Li Bingbing's absence in this. Looks like the daughter of her character is still in the film.

Don't forget JWD, which was technically the second biggest that summer as it was the only other film besides TGM to cross $1 billion WW.

Actuals are out and it doesn't look like Disney lowballed the revised weekend estimate at all. Date Rank Gross % Change Theaters Per Theater Total Gross Days May 4, 2023 P $17,500,000 0 $17,500,000 May 5, 2023 1 $48,103,839 4,450 $10,810 $48,103,839 1 May 6, 2023 1 $38,876,290 -19% 4,450 $8,736 $86,980,129 2 May 7, 2023 1 $31,433,892 -19% 4,450 $7,064 $118,414,021 3

Best case scenario it pulls an Incredibles 2 level increase for a finish in the $400 million range.

I thought that would be the expected slowdown after such a monstrous Golden Week? It's going to be very weekend heavy from now on until summer.

$5,423,531 second weekend (+15% over OW thanks to holiday on Friday), total up to $13,365,289 Friday increased 465% versus last Friday but Saturday and Sunday dropped by 41% and 52% respectively.

Holiday boosted but still super impressive it nearly matched the weekend in domestic market ($18.6 million).