Global Box Office

Things have been rough for Sony Pictures recently. As rival studios celebrated a summer of records, Sony’s major offers were titles like Aloha and Pixels.

Are you fan of the Fack Ju Gohte franchise? If you are not a German moviegoer, probably not. This weekend, however, the second movie in this comedy series was the big news at the box office, collecting an additional $16 million to a total take of $43,000 after 11 days in release in two territories, Germany and Hungary.

In the past few years we have heard it over and over, and even if there was no need for it, these last few days brought us further proof: China is cinema’s new Promised Land. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation had its Chinese debut last week and it promptly made $86 million, which means it passed the $600 million worldwide mark and, after six weeks of release it topped the international charts – again.

In terms of numbers, it was a lousy Labor Day weekend, actually one of the worst in the past few years. It was supposed to belong to The Transporter Refueled, but the replacement of Jason Statham with Ed Skrein did not bring much luck and the new installment of the franchise ended its first week of release just above $7 million, surprisingly beaten even by A Walk in the Woods, starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson which took $8 million and third place.

And the week belongs to … Terminator Genisys, the worldwide winner. Hold it: didn’t the last installment of the franchise that has launched the careers of both James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger have its debut during the Independence Day weekend? And with a domestic total below $90 million and a production cost of twice as much, wasn’t Genisys considered a failure just a few weeks ago? The film that blew the last chance for Arnold’s Hollywood comeback after his break playing the real-life role of Governor of California? All this was and is true, but that was before the overseas market started pumping money, an estimated $238 million into the film’s coffers.

On its second weekend, Straight Outta Compton became a bona fide phenomenon. The F.

Tom Cruise was still king of the markets this week as Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation managed to gather an extra $46 million out of 62 territories, for a worldwide gross of $373 million. Mission’s 5th installment was number one in France and in Brazil, where it celebrated its debut with $7 and $3.

If the weekly box office could be the subject of a film, it would be quite a cliffhanger: surprises, setbacks, comebacks, and unpredictable endings. It’s happened once again in these past few days, when the movie to beat was supposed to be Fantastic Four.

The era of big stars has recently come to an end. The days in which Tom Cruise’s name alone on the marquee was enough to draw audiences are over.

For many years he was a guarantee of success, a sure draw for audiences of all ages, his name up there with the likes of Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks. Adam Sandler was the beloved star of Big Daddy and Waterboy and the Wedding Singer and many more.