Refresh for Latest…: Ahead of next weekend’s domestic and wider overseas rollout, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 kicked off in Korea this session. The sci-fi satire hit Bong’s home market with an estimated $9M four-day start (which includes tomorrow’s Independence Day holiday), scoring the biggest opening weekend of 2025 so far and the best for a Warner Bros movie since 2019, as well as Robert Pattinson’s top Korea launch ever.
Bong’s first film since his multiple Oscar winner Parasite, Mickey 17 was the No. 1 draw for Korea audiences who gave it a 70% market share. The movie debuted on a non-traditional Friday, with the early play teeing up the global rollout this coming week which will include such majors as China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Australia and all of Latin America, alongside North America.
The Korea start came in higher than Dune: Part Two (+10%), Alien: Romulus (+33%), Furiosa (+64%), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (+129%) and Dune (+138%).
Across the FSS three-day of $7M, Mickey 17 grossed $600K in Imax from just 27 screens for 9% of the nationwide total.
Keeping tabs on Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2, it reached RMB 14.287B on Sunday in the home market, according to Maoyan estimates. Depending on the exchange rate conversion applied, that equates to anywhere from $1.962B to $1.984B solely in China. Combined with $18M from North America, that rises to $1.98B or $2.002B. Adding in reports on Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong figures of at least another $6M, that takes the global tally to $1.986B or $2.008B.
Any way you slice it, the film is a phenom that’s imminently passing $2B or has already edged the milestone. It is the 7th movie ever to $2B and the second speediest to the mark. We are waiting for numbers to shake out on Monday to make a clearer call on the totals and will update accordingly.
Elsewhere and in continued play, Marvel/Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World added $18.8M (-47%) in 52 international box office markets. That lifts the overseas cume to $178.1M and global to $341.8M.
The Top 5 offshore markets are UK ($19.8M), China ($14.2M), Mexico ($13.1M), France ($11.5M) and Korea ($10.7M).
Universal/Working Title’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy charmed overseas audiences to another $14.6M (-38%) in the third frame which added Germany, Italy and Austria. That takes the total UPI markets to 75 with a $90.2M cume. Including France, where Studiocanal releases and estimates $5.5M through Sunday, the total gross to date is $95.7M as Bridget nears the century mark.
Germany gave the heroine’s return a No. 1 welcome of $2.3M, in line with Ticket to Paradise whose biggest overseas market was Germany. Reviews and word of mouth are strong with staggered school holidays and Carnaval festivities in the mix.
Italy opened to $969K at No.2, in line with Ticket to Paradise and It Ends with Us.
In the UK, Mad About the Boy’s lead market, the cume is now $45.6M, surpassing the total lifetimes of Fifty Shades of Grey and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, having already topped Downton Abbey, It Ends with Us, Sex and the City 2 and the other Fifty Shades films. Performance is above Bridget Jones’s Baby at the same point.
Rounding out the Top 5 markets are Australia ($7.7M), Netherlands ($4.4M), Poland ($4.3M) and Spain ($2.3M).
Still to release are Japan and Korea in April.
In Oscar news, contenders Anora and The Brutalist notably saw strong holds in Universal markets this session, the former up 7% and the latter down just 29%. The respective international cumes are $23.3M (including FilmNation markets) and $25.6M (updates to follow).
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