Sometimes in life you can win by losing. It happens also at the box office, where if you look at the international chart of this past weekend the big winner is Tomb Raider. After opening last week in nine Asian markets, the Lara Croft reboot with Alicia Vikander in the role previously played by Angelina Jolie, ruled the foreign charts with $84.5 million. It was the top opener in Russia, across Latin America and most of Europe. It was number one also in China, with a respectable $41.1 million. But then there were the good old United States of America, still the dominant market and where being number one this time around was supposed to be easy. No film has stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks in a row since Avatar. But no film is like Black Panther, that handily won its battle with Lara Croft: $27 million against $23 million.

King T’Challa and Angela Bassett and Lupita Nyong’o and Letitia Wright and the other extraordinary women of Wakanda ruled once again, bringing the domestic total to $605.4 million. BP is now the second fastest grossing movie of all times, behind only The Force Awakens that grossed $840 million in a month. Overseas, the Disney/Marvel blockbuster is still going strong and added $30 million in 57 markets, for a worldwide total of $1.18 million. It started to slow down in China, where it has already grossed $96 million in ten days. Things are especially good in Korea, in the UK, in Australia and in Brazil. Notably, Black Panther is the highest grossing film of all time in South Africa.

Back to Tomb Raider, which was directed by Roar Uthaug (The Wave) and stars Dominic West, Daniel Wu and Kristin Scott Thomas. The domestic bow was a disappointment for MGM and Warner but at least they managed to fend off the surprise of the week: the faith-based film I Can Only Imagine, from the name of the “best selling Christian single of all times”. It stars J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard, the lead singer of the Christian band MercyMe. Dennis Quaid and Cloris Leachman also star in the film, which cost $7 million to make and has already generated $17.1 million. It defeated Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time, that in its second outing added just $16.6 million and is not earning traction overseas.  Also Love, Simon, the first major film featuring a gay teen protagonist and starring Nick Robinson made $11.5 million, which was a disappointment.

Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water keeps enjoying its so-called Oscar bump. It made $10.8 million dollars in China, a confirmation of the fact that the Middle Kingdom audiences are developing an appetite for more diversified and sophisticated films. Its worldwide total now stands at $173 million. Sony’s much appreciated Peter Rabbit crossed the $100 million mark domestically. Overseas, it finally opened in the UK to a very strong $9.5 million, more than twice what Tomb Raider grossed on its launch. And got so far, a total of $42 million out of 22 markets.

See the latest world box office estimates: