Not only did Soul debut at number one in both Russia and Korea, but director Pete Docter’s latest movie for Pixar also became the first feature film to top Nielsen’s weekly streaming chart.

Soul, which was not released theatrically in the United States but was streamed on Disney Plus, set the historic first on the week of December 21 to 27 (Nielsen lags in its reporting).

The animated film, an imagining of the Great Beyond and the Great Before, dethroned The Mandalorian, also by Disney Plus, which established a historic first on the week of December 14 to 20 as the first non-Netflix show to reach number one in Nielsen’s streaming rankings.

In Korea, Soul, voiced by Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey and Graham Norton, also scored a milestone as having the second biggest pandemic debut for a non-Korean movie. With $10.4 million earnings in this past weekend, Docter’s fourth directing effort for Pixar is the overseas box office champion. The 13 markets that the animated film performed strongly in include China, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Singapore and UAE.

Overall, the movie about a school teacher and musician whose soul is separated from his body has now raked in $71.2 million internationally. China ticket sales contributed $48.2 million to Soul’s overseas tally.

In India, director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Master delivered the wished-for good news at the box office. The crime thriller, starring Malavika Mohanan, Joseph Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi, earned an estimated $24 million and buoyed the local film industry heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The movie, seen as a triumph for the Tamil film industry, earned $6 million in other countries, including Australia, the Middle East, Singapore and the United States.

In Japan, filmmaker Haruo Sotozaki’s Demon Slayer: Mugen Train also continued to boost that country’s movie business as the animated action-adventure hit the $350 million mark in earnings.

Big Red Envelope, a comedy starring Bao Bei Er and Clara Lee and written and directed by Li Kelong, dominated China’s box office race with its opening weekend figures of $88 million. In second and third places are A Little Red Flower and Shock Wave 2 whose cumulative earnings are now $200 million and $170 million, respectively.

In the U.S., the dismal box office scene lingers with ticket sales lagging 90 percent behind the figures in the same period last year, when the COVID-19 health crisis has yet to strike. Amid such grim scenario, Liam Neeson’s The Marksman, even though it earned only $2.03 million, managed to hold on to its top rank in the American box office. In its 10 days of release, the Robert Lorenz-directed action thriller earned $6.09 million.

Occupying the rest of the top five slots are Nicolas Cage’s The Croods: A New Age ($1.82 million), Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman 1984 ($1.6 million), Milla Jovovich’s Monster Hunter ($820,000) and Tom Hanks’ News of the World ($810,000).

In sixth and seventh rankings are Hillary Swank’s Fatale ($415,000) and Carey Mulligan’s Promising Young Woman ($400,000), respectively.

Our Friend, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s drama featuring Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel and Casey Affleck, debuted with $250,000 in ticket sales.

Back to Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the last week of December, Soul’s historic first place slot was because it got 1.66 billion viewing minutes in a period of just two days. It must be noted that Nielsen’s streaming measurement does not cover HBO Max, which debuted Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day.

Pedro Pascal’s The Mandalorian, streaming on Disney Plus, was the other non-Netflix fare that made it to Nielsen’s streaming chart.

The following shows comprised Nielsen’s top ten chart, in this order: Soul, The Office, Bridgerton, The Midnight Sky, The Mandalorian, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Crown, Grey’s Anatomy, The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two and Criminal Minds.