- Box Office
World Box Office, April 18-24
Universal’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War didn’t bring home enough game as the studio had hoped after a tough first outing at the world box office. This prequel to 2012’s Snow White and The Huntsman, which dropped Kristin Stewart’s Snow White and instead focused on the backstory of Chris Hemsworth’s character, The Huntsman, made just $20.1 million in its domestic debut. Charlize Theron returns as the Evil Queen, while Emily Blunt signed on to play her equally malicious sister Freya. Much of the film’s marketing focused around this A-list trio but their combined star power wasn’t enough to make this picture a success. This is another Hemsworth-led film that like In The Heart of the Sea, Blackhat, and Rush, seems to show that the Australian actor still can’t draw in the crowds on his own.
Huntsman faltered overseas as well. It took just $32 million from 64 markets including China, where it only made $11.1 million and came in third. Its international total is now $80.2 million after three weeks of overseas lay, and the global cumulative sits it $100.3 million. With Captain America: Winter’s War starting to enter the market on Wednesday, this $115 million picture will have to scrape for every penny it can get in order to creep out of the red.
Disney meanwhile showed once again that it has a near-perfect formula for turning its animated classics into star-studded blockbusters. The Jungle Book roared to a huge $60.8 million second frame at home, dropping just 41 percent from its opening weekend take. The Jon Favreau-directed film has now reached a $191.5 million domestic total in just 10 days and will keep the ball rolling in the coming weeks where it doesn’t face any new competition in the family-friendly market.
Its foreign numbers were equally impressive, starting from India, where its $28.8 million cumulative makes it the biggest Hollywood release in the sub-continent’s history. In China it reached $97.4 million after another big frame, while it climbed to $17.8 million in Russia, the pictures third biggest overseas market. Overall Jungle Book’s second foreign outing was worth $96 million, and took its international cume to a staggering $337 million. The film’s global cumulative is now $528 million.
Zootopia in the meantime keeps going strong. Domestically, it was number four, adding $6.6 million for a total of $316.4 million. Globally, it passed the $ 900 million mark.
On the specialty market Tom Hanks’ A Hologram for the King, which sees the actor playing a desperate salesman trying to pitch a holographic teleconferencing system to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, opened to $1.2 million in 421 theatres. Lionsgate picked up the film at at Cannes last year for just $3 million and will look to turn a small but easy profit from this superstar’s passion project.
Lastly, in the wake of Prince’s shocking and untimely death several theatre chains and independent distributors will begin showing the iconoclastic singer’s 1984 film Purple Rain. It will be screened in 160 theatres across the country.
Next week we’ll keep up with Jungle Book and The Huntsman: Winter’s War, and see how these two fare with the arrival Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, which could very well become the biggest movie of 2016.