“Meg 2: The Trench,” the second Jason Statham-led shark thriller, is swimming to $112 million in its international box office debut, bringing its global total to $142 million.
It’s a strong start for the $130 million-budgeted film, which was co-financed by Warner Bros. and China Media Capital. Like the original, 2018’s “The Meg,” which earned nearly 73% of its $530 million worldwide tally from the foreign box office, the sequel will rely on overseas audiences to propel the film to profitability.
China was the top territory for “Meg 2” with $53.3 million, followed by Mexico with $7.6 million and the United Kingdom with $5.1 million. In North America, the poorly reviewed “The Trench” opened in second place with $30 million, a decent opening, albeit one that’s significantly below the original’s domestic debut of $45 million.
Overall, it was a weekend of global box office milestones as “Barbie” crossed the coveted $1 billion mark and “Oppenheimer” glided past $500 million.
Greta Gerwig’s fantasy-comedy “Barbie” joined the billion-dollar club after just 17 days on the big screen. It’s the fastest Warner Bros. release (and eighth in the studio’s 100-year history) to surpass $1 billion, besting the 19 days it took “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” This also makes Gerwig the first-ever solo female filmmaker with a billion-dollar film.
“Barbie” collected $74 million over the weekend, bringing its international total to a sizable $572 million. The biggest international markets are the U.K. and Ireland ($87.9 million), Mexico ($48.9 million), Australia ($41.1 million) and Brazil ($39.5 million).
Christopher Nolan’s dark historical drama “Oppenheimer,” also in its third weekend of release, has hit $552.9 million worldwide. Imax has accounted for a remarkable $114.2 million (22%) of the film’s worldwide total.
The R-rated movie, which stars Cillian Murphy as the scientist who led development on the atomic bomb that helped to end the second world war, added $52 million from 78 foreign territories over the weekend for an overseas total of $324 million.
Now, it stands as Nolan’s fifth-biggest release ahead of “Dunkirk” ($530 million), as well as the highest-grossing World War II movie of all time. “Oppenheimer” is also one of four biographical films to reach the $500 million mark, joining “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “American Sniper.”
Elsewhere at the box office, Sony and Blumhouse’s “Insidious: The Red Door” has amassed $182.5 million worldwide, including $100 million overseas. It became the highest-grossing horror film of the year, overtaking Universal’s sensation “M3GAN” ($180 million).