Full Article Text
S U N D AY, J A N U A RY 2 6 , 2 0 2 5
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK
ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26,
2025
A film's gross for the last seven days, followed by its total worldwide
gross. I begin with data from
Comscore and then pull from every other source available.
1. Mufasa: The Lion King– $39m / $627m worldwide
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 –$27m /$447m ww
3. Moana 2– $16m / $1,026b ww
4. Flight Risk–$16m worldwide debut
5. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–$15m /
$130m ww
6. A Complete Unknown–$13m / $74m ww
7. Paddington in Peru–$13m / $73m ww
8. Wolf Man–$13m / $28m ww
9. One of Them Days– $11m / $25m ww
10. Nosferatu– $10m / $166m ww
11. Honey Money Phony–$10m / $62m ww
12. Wicked– $8m / $717m ww
13. Big World– $6m / $109m ww
14. Conclave– $6m / $82m ww
15. Babygirl–$6m / $37m wwM I C H A E L G I LT Z AT W O R K
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached at
mgiltz@pipeline.com
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16. The Brutalist–$6m / $12m ww
17. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$4m / $40m ww
18. Better Man–$4m / $17m ww
19. Dark Nuns–$4m ww debut
20. Hitman2–$4m ww debut
21. Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capitol (2003)–
$3m / $53m ww
22. Presence–$3m ww debut
23. Brave The Dark–$3m ww debut
24. The Prosecutor–$2m / $38m ww
25. Finist. The First Warrior–$2m / $24m ww
26. Hot Pot Artist aka Huo Guo Yi Shu Jia –$2m / $8m ww
27. Gladiator II–$1m / $460m ww
28. Harbin–$1m / $31m ww
29. Homestead–$1m / $21m ww
30. Fake Dad–$1m / $6m ww
31. The Last Showgirl–$1m / $4m ww
32. September 5–$1m / $2m ww
33. Operation Hadal–$1m ww debut (preview?)
Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported
budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit
from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a
studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's
a good marker to indicate a big hit.
ANALYSIS
More madness with movies being rushed to PVOD. Nosferatu grossed
$20m last week, was poised to earn four Oscar nominations (albeit in
technical categories) and yet they still rushed it into homes. This week
it made $10m. Do they really think demand to watch it at home would
collapse if they waited another few weeks? When a movie only costs
$50mb to make, a $20m week is a lot of money. It's also manna from
heaven for movie theaters, which can really make good money off a
popcorn film with legs like this one.
Speaking of Oscar nominations, A Complete Unknown and Conclave
are the two films benefitting the most. Mind you, Conclave is also in
homes already, whereas the Bob Dylan bio-pic is a pure theatrical play,
with Timotheé Chalamet hosting SNL and singing (as himself) threeTHE ULTIMATE GRAMMY
PREVIEW: THE BEST
ALBUMS OF 2024
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
FOR WEEK ENDING
JANUARY 26, 2025
THE 250 BEST ALBUMS OF
THE 21ST CENTURY...SO
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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
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► 2024 (37)
► 2023 (8)
► 2022 (6)
► 2021 (8)
► 2020 (7)
► 2019 (93)
► 2018 (34)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (11)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2405)
► 2005 (5)3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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deep cut Dylan songs. But mid-sized movies that appeal to adults are
precisely the sort of movies that can do well off Oscar attention and
they're doing just that. Of course it's a complete unknown how
Conclave might have done if it weren't also available in homes. (Or a
known unknown, as Donald Rumsfeld would have said.) Yet it's already
a hit, thanks to a $20mb, whereas A Complete Unknown cost $60mb
and needs another $100m to be a hit from theatrical alone. That's
doubtful but if it can get to $140m or so, it will be a solid success.
This week I saw Wicked and I'm Still Here. Wicked is a lot of movie and
boy, at least the money is onscreen. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande
enliven things a lot but with weak songs and a very padded storyline, I
was exhausted. At the two hour and twenty minute, Jeff Goldblum is
doing a soft shoe number and Elphaba and G(a)linda are debating
whether a major infrastructure project in Oz should use red, blue,
purple or perhaps yellow bricks for the road and I in disbelief
wondered what the hell was going on.
In contrast, I'm Still Here is a solid drama with a terrific Fernanda
Torres as the wife of a man kidnapped by government forces in Brazil.
It's based on a true story and while I might still root for Mikey Madison
from Anora, I certainly won't be upset if Torres wins the Oscar. (Still
haven't seen Demi Moore's body horror film The Substance. )
NOTE: One movie fell off my box office radar. The Indian action-
drama Game Changer opened to $31m last week. This week? I can't get
any update. By all accounts it collapsed at the Indian box office. But
even a 90% drop worldwide would mean it still made $3m. I'll update
when numbers appear.
NOTES
mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide
1. Mufasa: The Lion King– $200mb
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3– $120mb
3. Moana 2– Is the budget lower since it was intended for tv, at first?
Or higher because they had to rethink everything? Disney says it cost
$150mb, just like the original. You can bet Dwayne Johnson gets more
than his share of coconuts, but that won't matter with a hit like this.
4. Flight Risk–$25mb for director Mel Gibson action film starring
Mark Walhberg.
5. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–
Chinese drama about businessman's daughter kidnapped from his
home.
6. A Complete Unknown–$60mb+ for this Bob Dylan biopic? That's a
lot of money for a film about Dylan going electric at Newport. I mean, I
want to see it but then I'm a Dylan fanatic. Off to a very good start and
star Timotheé Chalamet is sure to get an Oscar nomination, so it3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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should keep going. But $180m worldwide seems highly unlikely to me,
if not impossible. (Do other countries give a toss about this? Is
Chalamet a big enough draw for this story? I doubt it.) I'm glad it was
made, but it was made for too much. Like Gladiator II, this will be seen
as a commercial success, but it's not.
7. Paddington in Peru–$50mb? I'm just guessing. (That's sort of
midpoint between the original and Paddington 2.) Sadly, three times is
not the charm artistically for this once-perfect franchise. This week the
film had conflicting info. Comscore says the film grossed $6m this
weekend...but the movie's overall take jumped by $23m from $60m to
$83m? Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo claim its total jumped $13m to
$73m. That extra $7m from Monday to Thursday is more believable so
I'll go with that for now.
8. Wolf Man–$25mb
9. One of Them Days– $14mb. It's always good to gross your budget
during a film's opening week. So yea for producer Issa Rae and this
comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. (What a week for SZA! Her
movie opens well and she makes my list of The 250 Best Albums of the
21st Century...So Far.
10. Nosferatu– $50mb for Robert Eggers, acclaimed director of The
Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman. That had his biggest budget
and was not a commercial success. I saw him as more of an arthouse
guy. But backers stuck with him, gave him a big budget and a starry
cast for a remake of Nosferatu, which I guess is classier than
remaking Dracula but still a hard sell I thought. And on Christmas
Day? That's counter-programming I was not behind. Happily, I was
wrong and Eggers looks more like the next Peter Jackson/Guillermo
Del Toro than a guy given big budgets too fast or for the wrong
projects. Good for him!
11. Honey Money Phony–Chinese rom-com about young woman
suddenly burdened with debt who falls for a (very handsome) young
con man. Will he go straight for her or teach her his wicked ways so she
can get out from under this financial disaster?
12. Wicked– $150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup
marketing. It's a big movie!
13. Big World– $29m ww debut. Chinese drama starring pop star and
actor Jackson Yee as a young man living with cerebral palsy. Yee has
gone from boyband TFBoys to having the Mandarin song of the year in
2017 to success in TV and film. How's his English, asks Hollywood?
14. Conclave– a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means this is
a hit. It's at $60m and still going strong, with a boost from potential
Oscar noms. I do not see the point in putting it on PVOD and flooding
the market with bootlegs while potentially harming box office. This is
exactly the sort of film that can play and play in theaters.
15. Babygirl–$20mb for this Nicole Kidman sexy drama about a
powerful businesswoman finding her kink with a younger, dominating3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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man..her intern, no less! No milk was harmed in the making of this
movie.
16. The Brutalist–$10mb; Adrien Brody in this architect-as-hero period
drama.
17. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$40mb for Gerard Butler action flick.
18. Better Man–$110mb!!! I just gasped when I saw the budget. Oh
dear. I love the craziness of this movie. But that's a LOT of money for
such a nutty idea. And forget the nutty idea. It's a musical biopic about
an artist whose music I really like but has virtually no profile outside
the UK. For heaven's sake, Queen is one of the biggest acts in the world
and their biopic cost literally half of this one. Better Man would have
been a big gamble at $30mb.
19. Dark Nuns–Korean supernatural thriller w two nuns working
together to save a boy seemingly possessed by a demon while
protecting the sanctity of their order. It's a spin-off of The
Priests aka Black Priests, which came out in 2015 and grossed $36m.
Why it took a decade to capitalize on the first film is a mystery itself.
20. Hitman2–Korean action comedy. The creator of a webtoon series is
derided for the quality of his latest season...until real-life terrorists
seem to mirror his storyline and he's suddenly under suspicion by the
government. The original film grossed $18m.
21. Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capitol (2003)–
China reissue of Japanese animated franchise entry. Film had $32m
before reissue in China. I mean, they keep making them so
I assume they're profitable.
22. Presence–$2mb for retired director Steven Soderbergh's first of
two movies out in 2025.
23. Brave The Dark–no budget for presumably very low cost faith-
based indie film about the importance of performing arts programs?
24. The Prosecutor–Chinese drama starring Donnie Yen, who uncovers
a deep conspiracy when a poor young man is framed for drug
trafficking. Not on Donnie's watch!
25. Finist. The First Warrior–a Russian fantasy film starring actor
Kirill Zaytsev as "the strongest, most agile, and handsome hero of
Belogorye," according to Wikipedia. Zaytsev certainly fits the bill,
though since Belogorye currently has fewer than 3000 people, that may
not be such a major claim. Russians are surely starved for homegrown
cinema; it's been a while since Russian films made the charts. But I
couldn't even find a trailer for it on YouTube.
26. Hot Pot Artist aka Huo Guo Yi Shu Jia –A young Chinese man
dreams of becoming a film director, but somehow ends up running a
hot pot restaurant for artists, instead.
27. Gladiator II–$250mb for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. It
needs $750m worldwide for me to call it a hit from theatrical alone but3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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$600m would be just fine. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have
legs? No, it does not. This is the sort of film that everyone thinks of as a
hit, but actually didn't deliver. The talk of Gladiator 3 is nonsense.
Maybe many years from now they'll use the name to launch a new
franchise, but this is the end for now.
28. Harbin–A South Korean historical drama set in the early 1900s
about rebels fighting against the Japanese occupation of Korea. When
one rebel leader shows mercy to Japanese prisoners and his men pay
the price, he vows to redeem himself by assassinating the first Prime
Minister of Japan. So this one will probably not have a good run in
Japan.
29. Homestead–faith-based post-apocalyptic drama from Angel
Studios. A survivalist fantasy. Based on a series of ten, poorly reviewed
novels.
30. Fake Dad–Chinese comedy.
31. The Last Showgirl–$2mb for Pamela Anderson's performance as
Vegas showgirl whose revue suddenly closes after 30 years. Not so fast,
Demi, says Anderson.
32. September 5–no budget listed for this period drama about the
attack on Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Munich Olympics, all told from
the perspective of the ABC sports team that suddenly found itself
covering the biggest news story in the world.
33. Operation Hadal–In director Dante Lam's Chinese action film,
mercenaries have taken over a deep sea platform in Chinese waters and
well, the Chinese Navy is not about to take that lying down.
THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED
This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the
world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore,
Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for
countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in
trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else
discussing box office.
ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart
The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters
around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a
Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through
Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it
opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever,
depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one
day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the
box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday
through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend
and focusing on new releases?
How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box
office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total
worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past
seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK
ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26,
2025
A film's gross for the last seven days, followed by its total worldwide
gross. I begin with data from
Comscore and then pull from every other source available.
1. Mufasa: The Lion King– $39m / $627m worldwide
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 –$27m /$447m ww
3. Moana 2– $16m / $1,026b ww
4. Flight Risk–$16m worldwide debut
5. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–$15m /
$130m ww
6. A Complete Unknown–$13m / $74m ww
7. Paddington in Peru–$13m / $73m ww
8. Wolf Man–$13m / $28m ww
9. One of Them Days– $11m / $25m ww
10. Nosferatu– $10m / $166m ww
11. Honey Money Phony–$10m / $62m ww
12. Wicked– $8m / $717m ww
13. Big World– $6m / $109m ww
14. Conclave– $6m / $82m ww
15. Babygirl–$6m / $37m wwM I C H A E L G I LT Z AT W O R K
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached at
mgiltz@pipeline.com
FAV O R I T E L I N K S
Americablog
Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blog
Deep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog
The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN
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Chin's Blog
Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of
Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce
Greenspan's Blog
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16. The Brutalist–$6m / $12m ww
17. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$4m / $40m ww
18. Better Man–$4m / $17m ww
19. Dark Nuns–$4m ww debut
20. Hitman2–$4m ww debut
21. Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capitol (2003)–
$3m / $53m ww
22. Presence–$3m ww debut
23. Brave The Dark–$3m ww debut
24. The Prosecutor–$2m / $38m ww
25. Finist. The First Warrior–$2m / $24m ww
26. Hot Pot Artist aka Huo Guo Yi Shu Jia –$2m / $8m ww
27. Gladiator II–$1m / $460m ww
28. Harbin–$1m / $31m ww
29. Homestead–$1m / $21m ww
30. Fake Dad–$1m / $6m ww
31. The Last Showgirl–$1m / $4m ww
32. September 5–$1m / $2m ww
33. Operation Hadal–$1m ww debut (preview?)
Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported
budgets. That's my standard for a movie being a box office hit
from theatrical alone. Many films will be profitable for a
studio even if they don't triple their reported budget, but it's
a good marker to indicate a big hit.
ANALYSIS
More madness with movies being rushed to PVOD. Nosferatu grossed
$20m last week, was poised to earn four Oscar nominations (albeit in
technical categories) and yet they still rushed it into homes. This week
it made $10m. Do they really think demand to watch it at home would
collapse if they waited another few weeks? When a movie only costs
$50mb to make, a $20m week is a lot of money. It's also manna from
heaven for movie theaters, which can really make good money off a
popcorn film with legs like this one.
Speaking of Oscar nominations, A Complete Unknown and Conclave
are the two films benefitting the most. Mind you, Conclave is also in
homes already, whereas the Bob Dylan bio-pic is a pure theatrical play,
with Timotheé Chalamet hosting SNL and singing (as himself) threeTHE ULTIMATE GRAMMY
PREVIEW: THE BEST
ALBUMS OF 2024
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
FOR WEEK ENDING
JANUARY 26, 2025
THE 250 BEST ALBUMS OF
THE 21ST CENTURY...SO
FAR
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
FOR WEEK ENDING
JANUARY 19, 2025
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
FOR WEEK ENDING
JANUARY 12, 2025
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
FOR WEEK ENDING
JANUARY 5, 2025
► 2024 (37)
► 2023 (8)
► 2022 (6)
► 2021 (8)
► 2020 (7)
► 2019 (93)
► 2018 (34)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (11)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2405)
► 2005 (5)3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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deep cut Dylan songs. But mid-sized movies that appeal to adults are
precisely the sort of movies that can do well off Oscar attention and
they're doing just that. Of course it's a complete unknown how
Conclave might have done if it weren't also available in homes. (Or a
known unknown, as Donald Rumsfeld would have said.) Yet it's already
a hit, thanks to a $20mb, whereas A Complete Unknown cost $60mb
and needs another $100m to be a hit from theatrical alone. That's
doubtful but if it can get to $140m or so, it will be a solid success.
This week I saw Wicked and I'm Still Here. Wicked is a lot of movie and
boy, at least the money is onscreen. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande
enliven things a lot but with weak songs and a very padded storyline, I
was exhausted. At the two hour and twenty minute, Jeff Goldblum is
doing a soft shoe number and Elphaba and G(a)linda are debating
whether a major infrastructure project in Oz should use red, blue,
purple or perhaps yellow bricks for the road and I in disbelief
wondered what the hell was going on.
In contrast, I'm Still Here is a solid drama with a terrific Fernanda
Torres as the wife of a man kidnapped by government forces in Brazil.
It's based on a true story and while I might still root for Mikey Madison
from Anora, I certainly won't be upset if Torres wins the Oscar. (Still
haven't seen Demi Moore's body horror film The Substance. )
NOTE: One movie fell off my box office radar. The Indian action-
drama Game Changer opened to $31m last week. This week? I can't get
any update. By all accounts it collapsed at the Indian box office. But
even a 90% drop worldwide would mean it still made $3m. I'll update
when numbers appear.
NOTES
mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide
1. Mufasa: The Lion King– $200mb
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3– $120mb
3. Moana 2– Is the budget lower since it was intended for tv, at first?
Or higher because they had to rethink everything? Disney says it cost
$150mb, just like the original. You can bet Dwayne Johnson gets more
than his share of coconuts, but that won't matter with a hit like this.
4. Flight Risk–$25mb for director Mel Gibson action film starring
Mark Walhberg.
5. Octopus With Broken Arms aka Wu Sha 3 (Manslaughter 3)–
Chinese drama about businessman's daughter kidnapped from his
home.
6. A Complete Unknown–$60mb+ for this Bob Dylan biopic? That's a
lot of money for a film about Dylan going electric at Newport. I mean, I
want to see it but then I'm a Dylan fanatic. Off to a very good start and
star Timotheé Chalamet is sure to get an Oscar nomination, so it3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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should keep going. But $180m worldwide seems highly unlikely to me,
if not impossible. (Do other countries give a toss about this? Is
Chalamet a big enough draw for this story? I doubt it.) I'm glad it was
made, but it was made for too much. Like Gladiator II, this will be seen
as a commercial success, but it's not.
7. Paddington in Peru–$50mb? I'm just guessing. (That's sort of
midpoint between the original and Paddington 2.) Sadly, three times is
not the charm artistically for this once-perfect franchise. This week the
film had conflicting info. Comscore says the film grossed $6m this
weekend...but the movie's overall take jumped by $23m from $60m to
$83m? Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo claim its total jumped $13m to
$73m. That extra $7m from Monday to Thursday is more believable so
I'll go with that for now.
8. Wolf Man–$25mb
9. One of Them Days– $14mb. It's always good to gross your budget
during a film's opening week. So yea for producer Issa Rae and this
comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA. (What a week for SZA! Her
movie opens well and she makes my list of The 250 Best Albums of the
21st Century...So Far.
10. Nosferatu– $50mb for Robert Eggers, acclaimed director of The
Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman. That had his biggest budget
and was not a commercial success. I saw him as more of an arthouse
guy. But backers stuck with him, gave him a big budget and a starry
cast for a remake of Nosferatu, which I guess is classier than
remaking Dracula but still a hard sell I thought. And on Christmas
Day? That's counter-programming I was not behind. Happily, I was
wrong and Eggers looks more like the next Peter Jackson/Guillermo
Del Toro than a guy given big budgets too fast or for the wrong
projects. Good for him!
11. Honey Money Phony–Chinese rom-com about young woman
suddenly burdened with debt who falls for a (very handsome) young
con man. Will he go straight for her or teach her his wicked ways so she
can get out from under this financial disaster?
12. Wicked– $150mb for each part, so $300mb total plus beaucoup
marketing. It's a big movie!
13. Big World– $29m ww debut. Chinese drama starring pop star and
actor Jackson Yee as a young man living with cerebral palsy. Yee has
gone from boyband TFBoys to having the Mandarin song of the year in
2017 to success in TV and film. How's his English, asks Hollywood?
14. Conclave– a reported $20mb for this Vatican thriller means this is
a hit. It's at $60m and still going strong, with a boost from potential
Oscar noms. I do not see the point in putting it on PVOD and flooding
the market with bootlegs while potentially harming box office. This is
exactly the sort of film that can play and play in theaters.
15. Babygirl–$20mb for this Nicole Kidman sexy drama about a
powerful businesswoman finding her kink with a younger, dominating3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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man..her intern, no less! No milk was harmed in the making of this
movie.
16. The Brutalist–$10mb; Adrien Brody in this architect-as-hero period
drama.
17. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera–$40mb for Gerard Butler action flick.
18. Better Man–$110mb!!! I just gasped when I saw the budget. Oh
dear. I love the craziness of this movie. But that's a LOT of money for
such a nutty idea. And forget the nutty idea. It's a musical biopic about
an artist whose music I really like but has virtually no profile outside
the UK. For heaven's sake, Queen is one of the biggest acts in the world
and their biopic cost literally half of this one. Better Man would have
been a big gamble at $30mb.
19. Dark Nuns–Korean supernatural thriller w two nuns working
together to save a boy seemingly possessed by a demon while
protecting the sanctity of their order. It's a spin-off of The
Priests aka Black Priests, which came out in 2015 and grossed $36m.
Why it took a decade to capitalize on the first film is a mystery itself.
20. Hitman2–Korean action comedy. The creator of a webtoon series is
derided for the quality of his latest season...until real-life terrorists
seem to mirror his storyline and he's suddenly under suspicion by the
government. The original film grossed $18m.
21. Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capitol (2003)–
China reissue of Japanese animated franchise entry. Film had $32m
before reissue in China. I mean, they keep making them so
I assume they're profitable.
22. Presence–$2mb for retired director Steven Soderbergh's first of
two movies out in 2025.
23. Brave The Dark–no budget for presumably very low cost faith-
based indie film about the importance of performing arts programs?
24. The Prosecutor–Chinese drama starring Donnie Yen, who uncovers
a deep conspiracy when a poor young man is framed for drug
trafficking. Not on Donnie's watch!
25. Finist. The First Warrior–a Russian fantasy film starring actor
Kirill Zaytsev as "the strongest, most agile, and handsome hero of
Belogorye," according to Wikipedia. Zaytsev certainly fits the bill,
though since Belogorye currently has fewer than 3000 people, that may
not be such a major claim. Russians are surely starved for homegrown
cinema; it's been a while since Russian films made the charts. But I
couldn't even find a trailer for it on YouTube.
26. Hot Pot Artist aka Huo Guo Yi Shu Jia –A young Chinese man
dreams of becoming a film director, but somehow ends up running a
hot pot restaurant for artists, instead.
27. Gladiator II–$250mb for Ridley Scott sword and sandals epic. It
needs $750m worldwide for me to call it a hit from theatrical alone but3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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$600m would be just fine. It's got swords. It's got sandals. Does it have
legs? No, it does not. This is the sort of film that everyone thinks of as a
hit, but actually didn't deliver. The talk of Gladiator 3 is nonsense.
Maybe many years from now they'll use the name to launch a new
franchise, but this is the end for now.
28. Harbin–A South Korean historical drama set in the early 1900s
about rebels fighting against the Japanese occupation of Korea. When
one rebel leader shows mercy to Japanese prisoners and his men pay
the price, he vows to redeem himself by assassinating the first Prime
Minister of Japan. So this one will probably not have a good run in
Japan.
29. Homestead–faith-based post-apocalyptic drama from Angel
Studios. A survivalist fantasy. Based on a series of ten, poorly reviewed
novels.
30. Fake Dad–Chinese comedy.
31. The Last Showgirl–$2mb for Pamela Anderson's performance as
Vegas showgirl whose revue suddenly closes after 30 years. Not so fast,
Demi, says Anderson.
32. September 5–no budget listed for this period drama about the
attack on Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Munich Olympics, all told from
the perspective of the ABC sports team that suddenly found itself
covering the biggest news story in the world.
33. Operation Hadal–In director Dante Lam's Chinese action film,
mercenaries have taken over a deep sea platform in Chinese waters and
well, the Chinese Navy is not about to take that lying down.
THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED
This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the
world. It is compiled by pulling from every possible source: ComScore,
Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for
countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in
trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else
discussing box office.
ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart
The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters
around the world during the last seven days. If a movie opens on a
Thursday, we include all the box office from Thursday through
Sunday. If it opens on a Tuesday night, we cover all six days. If it
opens on a Sunday (as some movies do in India or wherever,
depending on holidays), then we include the box office for that one
day. If a movie was released before the current week, we include the
box office for all seven days. Why ignore the box office from Monday
through Thursday, as most charts do when tallying the latest weekend
and focusing on new releases?
How do we arrive at this number? We take the total worldwide box
office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total
worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past
seven days. Naturally, territories and movies sometimes fall through3/24/25, 3:00 PM POPSURFING.COM: WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JANUARY 26, 2025
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