Through Friday, Disney/Pixar’s
Toy Story 4 put $38.3M in the piggy bank, for a likely $110M+ opening frame at the international
box office. That would land it slightly above pre-weekend industry projections, with great starts in Latin America and despite soft — if not unexpected — results out of China (more on China below).
The fourquel is out in 49 markets repping 64% of the overseas footprint. Mexico is leading all play at $6.4M through yesterday with Brazil next at $5M and the UK at $3.9M. To get a sense of how well Latin America is leaning in, Brazil welcomed a new record on Thursday with Toy Story 4 roping $2.7M for the best opening day ever on an animated movie. In Argentina, TS4 drew the industry’s all-time biggest opening day in admissions, and was No. 2 in terms of box office, behind only Avengers: Endgame. Mexico on Friday grabbed the biggest opening day ever for
animation and the No. 4 industry start of all time.
In Europe, Spain scored the biggest animation opening day of 2019 yesterday and the UK saw the best non-holiday Friday ever for animation. (Also of note in the UK, Paramount’s Rocketman has surpassed £20M, becoming the only non-Disney title to do so this year as well as the highest-grossing British film of 2019.)
As for Asia, Korea put TS4 in the top spot on Thursday with the best opening day ever for Disney/Pixar. On Friday, Disney’s Aladdin moved back up the chart to No. 1 with TS4 at No. 2, but they have again switched places today. The running estimated cume in Korea is $5.5M through Saturday (today’s figures are not included in the international cume above). Indonesia on Friday delivered the biggest opening day ever for Disney/Pixar and the 2nd best ever for animation behind Despicable Me 3.
The China cume through Saturday (not reflected in the international total above) is estimated at around $8.4M. Woody and Forky are in 2nd place in the Middle Kingdom, as we expected would be the case since they have competition from Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning 2001 film Spirited Away which is just getting its first theatrical release there. However, TS4 jumped by over 100% on Saturday over Friday with matinees kicking in and as Spirited Away skews to an older demo. The social scores in China are high with a 9.2 on Maoyan and Tao Piao Piao and a 9 on Douban. Pixar movies in China, outside Coco, have been slower to gain traction versus Disney’s other brands.
This Toy Story is still unfolding overseas with Italy, France, Japan and Germany on deck in the coming weeks. Franchise-wise, it trends big in both Japan and the UK with the last one clearing well above $100M at final in each of those. More recent overseas comparisons include Incredibles 2, likewise a fresh entry many years following the previous title, with a key difference being that TS4 is a 4th film rather than a second installment. Incredibles 2 in like-for-like markets and at today’s rates opened last summer to $115M. Finding Dory in summer 2016 opened to $90M abroad in like-for-like markets and at today’s exchanges.
The Top 10 markets through Friday are Mexico ($6.4M), Brazil ($5M), UK, ($3.9M), Argentina ($3.1M), China ($2.7M), Korea ($2.4M), Australia ($1.8M), Colombia ($1.3M) and Peru ($1.2M).
We’ll have a full update on Sunday.