‘Challengers’ serves up $24m at global box office; Korean franchise film ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ tops chart:

UPDATE: Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers has grossed an estimated $24.0m in its first weekend of wide release, landing at the top of the North American box office with an estimated $15.0m for United Artists Releasing. The film also grossed a confirmed $9.3m in 52 international markets via Warner Bros. Including a week of earlier play in a couple of initial markets, the global total is $25.3m.

Among international territories, UK/Ireland leads on the Luca Guadagnino tennis-themed romantic drama, with a confirmed $2m – topping the chart there just ahead of Studiocanal’s Back To Black.

Next comes Guadagnino’s home market Italy with $1.5m – landing at the top ahead of local opener Confidenza. France delivered an estimated $1.1m, Mexico $692,000, and Germany $635,000.

Traction proved strong in Challengers’ two holdover markets Australia and New Zealand, with box office declining just 21%. In Australia, the cumulative total is $1.4m.

Challengers delivered the biggest opening of Guadagnino’s career in North America. For international, Warner Bros did not offer comparisons in like-for-like markets at the same stage of release. However, the $25m so far globally is already more than half way to reaching the $43.4m worldwide total for Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name (according to Box Office Mojo data). The director’s Bones And All reached just $15.2m worldwide.

There are 12 new markets opening Challengers this coming week including Netherlands and Belgium. Japan joins the fray on June 7.

UPDATE: In North America, Universal’s The Fall Guy opens on May 3 – the first Friday in May traditionally being seen as the start of the summer blockbuster movie season, and especially so in this case since Universal nabbed the date for The Fall Guy after Disney/Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine vacated the slot due to strike delays in production. It’s rare that a non-franchise film essentially enjoys pole position in summer movie season, and for that reason The Fall Guy commands particular attention.

David Leitch’s romantic action comedy rolled into its first wave of 38 international markets at the weekend, grossing a confirmed $8.4m. Australia leads with a chart-topping $2.8m, taking advantage of Thursday’s Anzac Day holiday, and the fact that 40% of schools are also on holiday this week.

The Fall Guy also topped the chart in Spain, opening with $957,000. The film topped the box office in the majority of its markets, including – in order of box office merit – Netherlands, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia, Ukraine, Belgium, Thailand, Central America, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Colombia, and Singapore.

For comparison, The Fall Guy is ahead of romantically flavoured action comedy The Lost City in like for like markets at the same stage of release, and is just behind Leitch’s Bullet Train. Those 2022 releases may suggest targets for The Fall Guy, with The Lost City reaching $192.9m over its lifetime, and Bullet Train hitting $239.3m.

The Fall Guy enjoys its biggest box office test this coming week, landing in multiple key markets, with Germany tomorrow (April 30), France, South Korea and Italy on Wednesday, Brazil and Mexico on Thursday, and North America and UK/Ireland on Friday. China opens on May 17, with Japan to follow in August.

Also for Universal, Kung Fu Panda 4 crossed the $500m barrier at the weekend, adding a confirmed $15.4m globally to reach $503.7m. It’s the fourth animated feature of the pandemic area to reach the $500m milestone – following The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Minions: The Rise Of Gru and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.

Despite its solid success, Challengers failed to earn global box office bragging rights thanks to the release in South Korea and a few other markets of ABO Entertainment’s The Roundup: Punishment, the fourth film in the action franchise starring Don Lee.

Comscore recorded an opening of $24.4m for this film – ahead of Challengers’ weekend haul of $24.0m.

According to reports, The Roundup: Punishment achieved a 94% market share in South Korea at the weekend. The success compares with a $14.5m opening for Korean local hit Exhuma in February.

Directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, this latest film follows Kang Yoon-sung’s The Outlaws in 2017, and Lee Sang-yong’s The Roundup and The Roundup: No Way Out in 2022 and 2023.

The Roundup: Punishment played a Special Gala slot at the Berlinale in February.

Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) stars as a lieutenant in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Investigation team. The storyline of the latest film involves an investigation into a crime ring involved in online gambling, money laundering and cryptocurrency.

The Roundup: No Way Out achieved a lifetime total of $79.6m in South Korea and $83.4m worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s latest faith-based film Unsung Hero landed in second place at the North America box office, launching with an estimated $7.8m. That number was enough to earn the film 10th place in the latest worldwide box office chart.

The film follows Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s success with Jesus Revolution and Ordinary Angels – films that respectively reached $52.1m and $19.2m at the North American box office.

Unsung Hero tells the story of David and Helen Smallbone and their family of seven children – three of which found success as Christian recording artists (duo For King & Country, and solo artist Rebecca St James) after immigrating to Nashville, Tennessee following the collapse of David’s music company in Australia.

With a production budget around $6m and an identifiable faith-based audience, Unsung Hero benefits from a quick route to profitability. For King & Country’s Joel Smallbone stars as his father David, and jointly writes and directs the film with Richard L Ramsey (2014’s The Song).

View this article at Screen Daily.