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| Overwhelming debut … Baahubali Photograph: PR |
Spin-offs have been a desperate last throw of the dice for animation franchises: Puss-in-Boots, Planes and, most recently, Penguins of Madagascar were box-office low points for, respectively, the Shrek, Cars and Madagascar series. That won’t be an issue for Universal’s irrepressible Minions, whose current $395.7m (£235m) worldwide gross already puts it within spitting distance of parent film Despicable Me’s $543.1m total, after just four weekends. Minions finally opened in the US this frame, with $115.2m comfortably surpassing the recent $90.4m for Pixar’s Inside Out (which cost twice as much) and snatching the second highest animation debut of all time (behind Shrek the Third’s $121.6m).
As noted here a fortnight ago, the dungareed yellow critters have a far higher degree of brand awareness than Puss-in-Boots and Madagascar’s Penguins, which is why talk of $1bn for this spin-off ain’t idle. (That would make it the third such 10-digiter for an on-fire Universal in 2015, after Furious 7 and Jurassic World.) The only question mark is whether the manic and one-dimensional Minions will hold as well through the summer as the two Despicables, which also opened in July but whose soft-centred sentiment gave them broader-than-expected appeal. But the huge start promises a US take in the order of a minimum $300m; on the current 70.9% international split, that points to $1bn overall and possibly more, with many territories yet to kick off.
Franchises tend to proportionally gross more overseas with each instalment, especially with the US gross usually falling off, but if Minions can combine that trend with improved takings across the board, it’ll confirm Despicable Me’s position as the dominant animation franchise of the 2010s. This week’s debuts suggest it’s happening, with figures from Mexico ($19.7m) and Russia ($14.3m) that are 32% and 17% up respectively on Despicable Me 2. So far it’s opened at No 1 in every single country, apart from Australia, where it clashed with Jurassic Park, and India, where local hero Baahubali (see below) was too strong. If it hangs in as well as Despicable Me 2 and beats that film’s $970.8m, it’ll be interesting to see the impact on Despicable Me 3 in 2017. The shift in focus back towards glum evil mastermind Gru could be an anticlimax after the babbling yellow takeover.
Telugu champion
It’s been a slow year financially for Indian cinema, with box-office watchers waiting until late May for romcom sequel Tanu Weds Manu Returns to finally break the 100-crore mark ($15.7m) for local films. Unexpectedly, it’s the Telugu industry – generally a notch down on takings from Bollywood – that has provided the first true barnstormer of 2015, in the shape of SS Rajamouli’s epic saga of a deposed king, Baahubali. Being touted as the most expensive Indian film ever certainly didn’t dampen its prospects (though the $40m budget was technically split over two parts), and early reports suggest it has monstered the 108-crore ($17m) debut weekend record set last Diwali by Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year.
Friday and Saturday saw takings for Baahubali (also filmed in Tamil, and dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam) in the order of 135 crore, and a Hindustan Times piece has pegged the whole weekend at 165 crore ($26m). Worldwide figures aren’t yet available, but it took $3m in the US, within a whisker of the $3.5m for Aamir Khan’s religious satire PK, the highest-grossing Indian film worldwide. So Baahubali should have placed in the vicinity of sixth or seventh on the global chart, minimum. Most heartening is that Rajamouli’s film was warmly reviewed: the Guardian called it “a near-perfect balance between physicality and poetics”, and Times of India said “the larger-than-life execution matches [Rajamouli’s] grandiose vision”. So, in contrast to the likes of Happy New Year – which the old Bollywood razzle-dazzle routine couldn’t prevent from dropping off embarrassingly – Baahubali has a shot at setting a box-office record for the ages. Or at least until part two, next year.
In a quiet week on the new global-release front, a pause to consider the after-effects of one of the year’s most startling performances. Everyone seemed in agreement that Charlize Theron’s embattled Furiosa, not Tom Hardy’s haunted Max, was the true star of Fury Road. With its theatrical run more or less done now – $359.5m worldwide, making the $150m film a modest success – what impact will it have on her career? This intense performer has anchored plenty of substantial material (North Country, The Burning Plain, Young Adult), and in the wake of her 2004 Oscar win for Monster, found herself in bankable blockbuster territory once before with sci-fi thriller Aeon Flux. That, making $52m on a $62m budget, didn’t work out – and is perhaps why Warner Bros thought she wasn’t a surefire marketing element for Fury Road, whose feminist aspect went completely uncommunicated prior to the first reviews. But Theron deserves credit for spurring the fourth Mad Max film to the frenzied pitch that made it such a treat. So, equally, she deserves a mainstream project that not only exploits her natural screen authority, but is set up as a true test of her bankability – and is promoted accordingly. Fury Road – which might have taken more if it had explicitly targeted female filmgoers – surely has earned Theron the benefit of any doubt. At 39, she may not get many more chances.
Beyond Hollywood
Other than Korean north-south thriller NLL: Battle of Yeonpyeong, holding firm in its third week just outside the global top 10, it was all Chinese traffic taking advantage of the country’s Hollywood blackout period. In a big week for the present roaring trade in lightweight, gooey, coming-of-age hankie-dabbers, newcomer Forever Young edged out the fourth entry in the prolific Tiny Times franchise, about four Shanghai BFFs, $38.1m to $36m. The former is the feature-length debut of TV host He Jiong, spinning out a hit song he recorded a few years ago into a tale of performing-school love and woes. The Sydney Morning Herald review intriguingly suggests that, were it not for the censor board, the film might be more inclined to delve further into its lingering homoerotic undertone. In 10th place on the global chart, with $10m, was Monkey King: Hero Is Back, a 3D animated take on the apparently indefatigable local literary linchpin last seen in Donnie Yen’s box office-conquering version early last year. Down in 12th place, Chen Kaige’s neo-wuxia Monk Comes Down the Mountain, covered in last week’s column, dropped a pretty precipitous 78% – possibly hounded out by the flashier contemporary offerings.
The future
Marvel closes Phase 2 of operations, hoping to repeat last summer’s out-of-leftfield Guardians of the Galaxy triumph with the similarly goofy Ant-Man, and shrinking Paul Rudd in order to elevate him to blockbuster leading-man status – surely the first such inverted tack on star-making since Rick Moranis and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? This new, potentially tender shoot of the Marvel meta-franchise, opening day-and-date in 50 territories, has tough competition from Minions. A box-office return at the lower end of the spectrum for the company (somewhere between the $65.7m for Thor and $94.3m for Guardians) looks more likely for its US debut. Pixels, Sony’s hipster-friendly blockbuster in which Earth is under attack from a blocky Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and other 80s arcade denizens, pops a first coin in the slot in South Korea, before a 40-something-country rollout the following frame. And Bollywood stumps up some proper competition for Baahubali in the shape of Salman Khan’s latest, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, on release to capitalise on the Muslim superstar and Alan Cumming lookalike’s fan base as Ramadan winds up. With Khan’s appeal against a five-year-sentence for running over a homeless man still hanging over him, the new film’s plot – a magnanimous Indian fella helps a stranded, mute Pakistani woman get back over the border – has the awkward ring of a timely public-relations overture.
Top 10 global box office, 10-12 July
1. Minions, $239.5m from 57 territories. $395.7m cum – 70.9% international; 29.1% US
2. Terminator Genisys, $61m from 61 territories. $224.8m cum – 69.4% int; 30.6% US
3. Jurassic World, $39.8m from 66 territories. $1.46bn cum – 59.7% int; 40.3% US
4. (New) Forever Young, $38.1m from 4 territories. $38.6 cum – 99.9% int; 0.1% US
5. Inside Out, $36.2m from 45 territories. $435.4m cum – 34.9% int; 65.1% US
6. (New) Tiny Times 4.0, $36m from 1 territory. $54m cum – 100% int
7. Magic Mike XXL, $19.9m from 31 territories. $68.9m cum – 29.7% int; 70.3% US
8. Ted 2, $18m from 36 territories. $124.8m cum – 42.6% int; 57.4% US
9. (New) Gallows, $11.2m from 14 territories – 10.7% int; 89.3% US
10. (New) Monkey King: Hero Is Back, $10m from 1 territory. $11.5m cum – 100% int
• Thanks to Rentrak. This week’s figures are based on estimates; all historical figures unadjusted, unless otherwise stated.
