Disney’s live-action Aladdin performed at the top end of industry projections we were seeing ahead of the weekend. With $122M overseas for $212.4M global (for the three-day), the Will Smith-starrer is off to a good start, notably over-performing domestically and seeing a strong launch in Asia. (Including the four-day domestic opening, the worldwide total is $234.7M). In IMAX, the worldwide bow is $15M with $6.9M from 996 international screens.
In like-for-like opening comps and at today’s rates, The Jungle Book bowed to $160M abroad, Maleficent did $107M and Cinderella $85M. The ultimate best markets on those films was a mix of China, Japan, UK, Mexico and India.
The Guy Ritchie-helmed Aladdin is in 54 material markets this session, with Japan joining on June 7 in what looks to be a nicely teed-up date. All play so far is led by China with $18.7M which is also at the top of the local range. There, word of mouth and social scores helped the movie despite there being no star-studded premiere and a concern younger audiences might have less interest given the rest of the cast outside Smith does not have a big following in the market. Smith is a star there, though he hasn’t had a major film in the Middle Kingdom in several years.
Elsewhere in Asia, Aladdin was No. 1 everywhere with Saturday/Sunday uplift from the early midweeks. Australia and India had been expected to do solid business and did deliver, but there was worry over Korea and the South East hubs. However, the first weekend points to word-of-mouth momentum and in Indonesia, Aladdin is the top Disney Live Action title to date (excluding the Marvel/Lucasfilm pics). Using the same comps, it’s No. 2 in India and Vietnam. The opening weekend exceeded the whole run of Maleficent in Indonesia and India and all of Cinderella in Taiwan, Korea and India.
Family-friendly Latin America gave Genie No. 1s across the board with Aladdin tracking ahead of both Jungle Book and Cinderella, and very close to Maleficent. Mexico leads the region with an estimated $9.2M for three days, 121% ahead of Cinderella, 52% ahead of Jungle Book and 3% behind Maleficent, making it the second highest ever May opening weekend there. Brazil’s bow came in above all comps (+92% on Jungle Book/+55% on Cinderella/+35% on Maleficent).
In Europe, Aladdin faced stronger competition, notably from John Wick: Chapter 3 in Germany, which was expected. Across the region, it is tracking ahead of both Maleficent and Cinderella. As noted above, the UK and Italy were tops with $8.4M and $6.6M, respectively. The UK has a bank holiday this weekend that leads into half-term school breaks and sets up nice play.
In Italy Aladdin grabbed the 2nd best opening weekend of 2019, behind only Avengers: Endgame, and was 17% ahead of Maleficent. Elsewhere, Aladdin also posted the second highest opening weekend to date in 2019 in Spain, and was the best Ramadan bow ever in the UAE and Jordan.
The Top 5 markets this launch session are China ($18.7M), Mexico ($9.2M), UK ($8.4M), Italy ($6.6M) and Korea ($6.5M).
