'Transformers 5' Opens with Franchise Low as 'Wonder Woman' Surpasses 'Batman v Superman' Domestically
by Brad Brevet --- June 25, 2017
by Brad Brevet --- June 25, 2017
Paramount's Transformers: The Last Knight took the #1 spot this weekend as expected, but that opening was the lowest the franchise has seen thus far by a rather significant margin as a lot of attention will now turn toward the film's international run. Meanwhile, WB's Wonder Woman is still tearing up the box office as it has now become the highest grossing release within the DC Extended Universe and it is showing little sign of stopping.
Only one of the previous four Transformers features opened on a Wednesday and that was 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third feature in the now five-film franchise, and it debuted with $162.6 million over its first five days in release, $97.8 million of that from the three-day weekend. By contrast, Transformers: The Last Knight brought in a mere $69.1 million over its first five days in release, an estimated $45.3 million of which over the three-day weekend. While this is relatively on par with the $70 million industry expectations, it puts added pressure on the $217 million production's international run.
As for that run, Last Knight kicked things off in 41 international markets with an estimated $196.2 million led by $123.4 million from China alone, the largest opening for a Transformers film in that market. Additionally, openings include Korea ($13m), Russia ($8.9m), United Kingdom ($5.7m), Germany ($4.7m), Taiwan ($4.1m), Australia ($3.6m), Philippines ($3.3m), Malaysia ($2.8m), Thailand ($2.8m), Hong Kong ($2.5m), Singapore ($2.2m) and Italy ($1.9m). While that China opening may be a franchise high, topping Transformers: Age of Extinction by more than $30 million, the other numbers aren't as impressive.
Before going on to gross over $858 million internationally, Transformers: Age of Extinction opened with $15.8 million in Korea, over $20 million in both Russia and the UK, $11.1 million in Germany, $8.3 million in Australia and so on. With the domestic run looking to finish somewhere around $130 million or so The Last Knight has a lot of work internationally yet to do. As for future releases, it will open in France next week, followed by July releases in Brazil and Mexico, with Japan and Spain premiering in early August.
Opening weekend demographics domestically show The Last Knight playing to an audience that was split 57% male versus 43% female and of that crowd, 29% were under the age of 18 and gave the film an "A" CinemaScore. Unfortunately, the 18-and-over crowd scored it a bit lower bringing the overall CinemaScore down to a "B+". Comparatively, only Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen scored below an "A-" when it too received a "B+" in 2009.
Moving along, Disney's Cars 3 and Wonder Woman are in a tie for second place with both studios reporting an estimated $25.175 million weekend. Beginning with Cars, the latest Pixar title dipped 53% in its second weekend and now stands just shy of $100 million after ten days in release. Internationally the film debuted in Australia with an estimated $2 million, contributing to an estimated international weekend of $11.9 million from 26 markets for a $41.4 million international gross and a $141.3 million global cume. The film hits theaters in Brazil, Korea, Spain, UK and Japan in mid-July which releases in France, Italy and Germany in August and beyond.
As for WB's Wonder Woman, it continues to live up to its protagonist's name, dropping only 39% in its fourth weekend in release. The film is now just shy of $320 million domestically and is now out-pacing all three of the previous DC Extended Universe releases as it now passes Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which had brought in $311.3 million after the same number of days in release. To that point, Wonder Woman has already outgrossed the entire domestic run for Man of Steel, is ~$7 million away from outgrossing the domestic run for Suicide Squad and will surpass Batman v Superman's $330.4 million run over the next few days, which will make it the third largest DC Comics adaptation domestically, behind only The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Internationally, Wonder Woman brought in an estimated $20.5 million from 65 markets as the overseas cume currently stands at $334.5 million. The film is still behind the three previous DC releases internationally, but it is just $42.5 million behind Man of Steel. This weekend it released in Spain where it brought in an estimated $2.2 million and it still has yet to be released in Japan, where it will premiere on August 25. Overall, Wonder Woman has now topped $635 million worldwide as it currently stands as the sixth largest DC Comics adaptation of all-time worldwide.
Entertainment Studios' 47 Meters Down held on rather well, delivering an estimated $7.4 million, a 33.6% drop from its opening weekend last week as its domestic cume now stands at $24 million.
Rounding out the top five is a massive decline for Lionsgate's All Eyez On Me, which delivered a more-than-expected opening weekend last week, but dropped nearly 80% in its second weekend, delivering an estimated $5.85 million as its domestic cume now stands at $38.6 million.
Just outside the top ten, Roadside's release of Beatriz at Dinner brought in an estimated $1.8 million after adding 414 theaters this weekend bringing the total to 491 locations. A24 also expanded their release of The Exception into 48 theaters (+34) where it brought in an estimated $138,134 for a $2,878 average.
In limited release, Lionsgate's release of The Big Sick grossed an estimated $169,255 in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles, a per screen average of $87,000, the largest per screen average of any film opening on more than one screen this year. Also, Focus's release of Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled delivered an estimated $240,545 from four locations for a strong $60,138 average, the film will expand to over 500 screens in North America next weekend.
Additionally, Neon's release of The Bad Batch delivered an estimated $91,074 from 30 locations ($3,036 PTA) and Abramorama's Food Evolution opened with an estimated $3,311 from one theater.
Next weekend sees the release of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver on Wednesday ahead of the long, July 4 weekend. Meanwhile, Universal will debut Despicable Me 3 (which has already generated $18.9 million internationally) into over 4,350 theaters on Friday and Warner Bros. will release the comedy The House into over 3,000 theaters as all films look to take advantage of what will amount to a five-day weekend with the July 4 holiday falling on a Tuesday this year, which hasn't happened since 2006.
