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WB Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pamela Abdy commented today, “With Wonka, Paul King, producer David Heyman and the amazing cast and crew led by Timothée Chalamet have delivered a truly special musical event. It is incredibly validating to see this film achieve such an exciting milestone. We are grateful to our partners in exhibition for their unwavering support and the audiences around the globe who came out for this big-screen celebration. Congratulations to the filmmakers, cast and our colleagues around the world – this is a sweet start to 2024.”

The Top 5 markets to date are the UK at a fantastic $71.1M, France with $25.4M, Mexico at $24.4M, Australia with $21M and Germany at $20.9M.

This second frame of 2024 also offered a pair of new titles in Miramax’s The Beekeeper and Paramount’s Mean Girls.

The former, directed by David Ayer, buzzed into 49 offshore markets this session, grossing an estimated $20.4M. In like-for-like markets (excluding China and Russia), the start is 27% above Wrath of Man, 29% bigger than Plane and 23% over the first John Wick. The global 3-day is estimated at $37.1M. In IMAX, The Beekeeper grossed $8.1M worldwide.

The Jason Statham-starrer performed best in China where he’s a strong draw. At No. 4 with $4.4M, The Beekeeper was the No. 1 import for the frame which was led again by local comedy Johnny Keep Walking! ($108.5M running cume).

Germany and Austria opened to No. 1 with an estimated $2.85M, coming in +152% on Wrath of Man, +117% on Plane, +45% on John Wick 2 and on par with The Equalizer.

The Middle East collectively opened at No. 1 with $2.7M, above the comps and on par with John Wick 2. Australia and New Zealand bowed to a combined $1.4M, in line with Wrath of Man. Other key openings were in Mexico ($1.3M), UK ($1.2M), Ukraine ($919K), Italy ($780) and Spain ($729K).

Markets still to come include Scandinavia, Korea and Japan.

Mean Girls, meanwhile, bowed in just 16 offshore markets, clicking with $6.5M including No. 1 debuts in Australia ($2.3M) and Mexico ($1.7M). The rollout represents 47% of the international footprint with the UK and New Zealand due next weekend, followed by Germany on January 25 and Belgium on February 7. The global 3-day is $34.5M.

Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., Mean Girls was written by Tina Fey, based on the stage musical for which she wrote the book, with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin.

Although considered more of a domestic play, the film is doing well in urban, upscale theaters in key overseas cities, and reviews and positive word of mouth across all markets bode well for the rest of the run. The strong digital campaign has seen impact offshore where U.S. comedies tend to be favored in Anglo-Saxon markets. Perhaps the musical aspect is helping here, as well as giving younger folks a chance to see this take on the big screen after having discovered the original 2004 movie online, and maybe go with their moms for the experience.

Rounding out the Top 5 markets are Brazil at $590K from 320 locations, France with $360K from 385 and Spain with $330K at 275 sites.

In holdover news, Warner Bros/DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom surfed to another $16.6M in 78 overseas markets. The international running total now stands at $265.5M and the worldwide tally through Sunday is $373.7M.

Japan debuted this session to an estimated $1.6M on 986 screens at No. 1. The results are ahead of the opening weekend of The Flash by 8% and Black Adam by 41%. The IMAX global cume now stands at $32.8M.

Here are the Top 5 markets to date: China ($57.5M), Mexico ($19.6M), France ($16.8M), Germany ($14.4M) and Brazil ($12.4M).

Universal/Illumination’s Migration flew to another $8.9M from 74 overseas markets for a 50% drop. The international cume is now $86.9M with global at $172.6M.

Korea was the latest market to join the flock with a start of $992K and a terrific 98% CGV Egg rating with winter school holidays underway. Drops across EMEA were heavier heading into the weekend with a number of markets having finished school holidays. Individual holds were good with Spain notably up 30%.

Germany still leads play at $13.5M, above the lifetimes of Sing 2, Toy Story 4, Kung Fu Panda 3, Trolls, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Coco. The Top 5 is rounded out by France ($9.8M), Mexico ($7.5M), Australia ($7M) and Spain ($4M).

Still to come are the UK and Japan.

Disney’s Wish overall saw a steeper drop than last frame, but had significant holds in Spain (+8%), Denmark (-19%), Australia (-28%) and Brazil (-29%). The weekend granted $8.6M in 51 markets for a running overseas total of $160.4M and $223.4M global.

The Top 5 markets to date are Japan ($20.9M), France ($19.6M), Germany ($15.8M), UK ($15M) and Italy ($9.8M).

Sony’s romcom Anyone But You is benefiting from great word of mouth, dipping by just 13% overseas for a $5.1M weekend in 23 markets. The international cume is $22.8M for $78M worldwide. There was a massive 15% jump in the UK this weekend, lifting the Will Gluck-directed Glen Powell/Sydney Sweeney-starrer to $6.9M locally. Australia leads play with $8.9M.

Upcoming key market releases include Germany, Mexico, Spain, France, Brazil and Italy throughout January.

While we don’t have the full international weekend numbers for Searchlight’s Poor Things, the Venice Golden Lion winner continues to do great business. The global estimate (including domestic’s 4-day) is now $23.8M, of which $6.1M is from just six overseas markets. Notably this session, the Emma Stone-starrer bowed at No. 2 in the UK with $2M ($2.3M including previews). It also opened in Finland (No. 1) and Norway (No. 4); it posted the best opening weekend ever for a Yorgos Lanthimos film in both markets. In already opened markets, Poor Things held by +2% in Australia and -3% in Greece. The Greece cume to date ($1.7M) is already above the final total of The Favourite after just 14 days of release.

https://deadline.com/2024/01/wonka-milestone-beekeeper-mean-girls-global-international-box-office-1235789848/

Director Francis Lawrence’s exclusive interview featured in DEN OF GEEK’s New York Comic Con Special Edition issue in support of THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES. He talks about the unique opportunity of telling a villain’s origin story and goes into detail about the tone of production design. He also shares Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler’s undeniable chemistry during the casting process. Please note, there is a minor misspelling of "Coryo's" nickname in the print version, however it has been corrected online.

Nearly two decades since Jigsaw Killer John Kramer sent his first set of victims on a bloody, sadistic thrill-ride which made you want to puke with both excitement and revulsion, we’re due the tenth Saw film, Saw X, in a matter of weeks. Finding ever more inventive ways to make you go “Oh, God, no” is a tricky task – and in the new issue of Empire, Saw X director and franchise veteran Kevin Greutert says this time they’ve looked back to the future. Tobin Bell’s Kramer hasn’t been around the franchise for a little while, but for Saw X the original Jigsaw, with his inventive approach to life-coaching, is back, big-time.

“Kramer is the centre of the story,” confirms Greutert in Empire’s epic Horror Preview in the Dune: Part Two issue. As longtime Saw stans will know, John Kramer died at the end of Saw III and the franchise has managed to work around that fact with evermore gymnastic ideas: there have been secret Kramer fanboys and successors anointed by the Napoleon of really grim murder conceits, in the trickiest timeline this side of a Christopher Nolan movie (or a Fast & Furious sequel). Saw X is getting around that, though, with a simple time jump back to a period between Saw I and Saw II when Kramer traveled to Mexico in hopes of a treatment for his terminal cancer. “They tried to make the last Saw without Tobin,” Greutert says, “and to me, that was a pretty gutsy move.” (That’s a very tactful euphemism for ‘definitely not what I would have done’ there.)

Indeed, Greutert says his Saw X will feature Kramer “more than in any other Saw,” and after a more expansive detective-thriller conceit last time around, and the escalating flesh-shredding carnage of previous sequels, Greutert teases a return to a grittier tone. “This one has pulled back to a somewhat more realistic level,” explains Greutert. “Not maybe Saw I-level simplicity, but close. The more that the audience can get the sense that a smart engineer – which he is – could figure out what to do with these parts and make it work, the better.” The other big change is a perspective shift from the terrified subjects of Kramer’s games to Kramer himself. “[Saw X] is an emotional journey that you go on with John Kramer, and less a slaughterhouse that you experience from the point of view of the victims. Obviously there will be people that can’t handle it, but I think it has a good chance of appealing to people beyond gore freaks.”

Don’t worry though, gore freaks: we’re willing to bet you’ll be more than catered to as well.

Read Empire’s full Saw X feature in the Dune: Part Two issue – part of our major Horror Preview, also featuring The Exorcist: Believer and Five Nights At Freddy’s – on newsstands from 31 August. Pre-order a print copy of Cover 1 or Cover 2, or become an Empire member to access the digital edition on launch day. Saw X comes to UK cinemas from 29 September.

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/saw-x-tobin-bell-jigsaw-exclusive/

BY SOPHIE BUTCHER |

POSTED2 HOURS AGO

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Ready to head back to Panem? Eight years after the last instalment graced the big screen – Mockingjay, Part Two in 2015 – a brand new The Hunger Games movie is on the way. This one is based on Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, which is set over 60 years before Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and entered the arena to fight for her life. This new story focuses on the dictator who was enforcing those brutal Hunger Games, President Coriolanus Snow (played previously by Donald Sutherland, and now by Tom Blyth), back when he was a young man in the Capitol.

The franchise, both in book and movie form, was a huge success, but returning director Francis Lawrence (who helmed sequels Catching Fire and both _Mockingjay_s) still had a big concern at the front of his mind going into making the prequel. “Will people go see a new Hunger Games movie without Katniss?” he asks Empire, speaking to us exclusively for our brand new Dune: Part Two issue. It’s a good question, but one the new film has an answer for. Enter Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12 chosen to compete in the tenth annual Hunger Games, and to whom young Snow is assigned as a mentor. She is the ‘anti-Katniss’, as Lawrence puts it. “Katniss was an introvert and a survivor,” he says. “She was quite quiet and stoic, you could almost say [she was] asexual. Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve, [and] she really is
a performer.”

Where Katniss was a reluctant face of the rebellion, who had to be forced to put on a smile on camera, and keep her fake-turned-real love story with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) convincing so as to get the public on her side, Lucy Gray relishes the spotlight. Where Katniss was deadly with a bow, Lucy Gray uses her wiles as a weapon. “She loves crowds,” says Lawrence. “She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people.” May the odds be ever in her favour.

Read Empire’s exclusive The Hunger Games story, speaking to director Francis Lawrence, in full in the new Dune: Part Two issue, on sale Thursday 31 August. Pre-order a print copy of Cover 1 or Cover 2, or become an Empire member to access the digital edition on launch day. The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes is in cinemas from 17 November.

The explosive world of The Expendables is set to expand once more in its fourth installment, promising a lineup of characters that reek of action-packed prowess. As fans eagerly anticipate the adrenaline-fueled mayhem, one question sparks fiery debates: who among the elite cast will emerge as the ultimate powerhouse? In a saga where brawn collides with brains, ranking these larger-than-life characters by their sheer power becomes a tantalizing endeavor. Picture a battleground where Sylvester Stallone's indomitable Barney Ross clashes with Jason Statham's cunning Lee Christmas – a duel between unyielding strength and calculated strategy.

The allure deepens when mysterious newcomers portrayed by legendary action icons enter, throwing uncertainty into the mix. However, strength doesn't just reside within physical force and weapons. The way intriguing characters clash and team up creates a tangled mix of forces that adds depth to how power is built. This list isn't just raw strength, but a dive into how each character's special qualities shape the team's harmony and mission triumph. Here's a rundown of the top 10 characters from Expendables 4, arranged according to their levels of might.

While not wielding the same fame as some legendary action stars, Randy Couture's portrayal of Toll Road in Expendables 4 promises a different kind of power. A former UFC champion, Couture's real-life fighting skills infuse authenticity into his character's brawls. In the previous Expendables films, he totally rocked his roles, fitting right in with the crew and owning his unique space. Also, think about The Scorpion King 2: Embrace of the Warrior, where he totally flaunted his brawn and displayed his talent for nailing those hardcore roles. In Expendables 4, expect Couture to channel his fighting spirit into Toll Road, proving that power comes in various forms on the silver screen.

Megan Fox taking on the role of Gina in Expendables 4 brings a thrilling new dynamic to the crew. With her captivating charisma and combat prowess showcased in hits like Transformers and Jennifer's Body, get ready for a fresh and exhilarating energy injected into the heart of the Expendables saga. She's no stranger to action-packed roles, having been cast in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rogue. Gina, a skilled covert operative, could seamlessly blend Fox's seductive allure with lethal prowess. While entering the Expendables universe might be her first time, Fox's previous characters really highlight how skilled she is at blending power with a captivating allure.

RELATED:Megan Fox’s Expendables 4 Role Replaces A Forgotten Franchise Character

In the upcoming Expendables 4, Jacob Scipio is all set to make a powerful impact as Galan. There's this magnetic charm he carries, so enchanting and irresistible. Plus, toss in his incredible combat abilities, and you've got a whole different kind of thrill injected into his character. Remember when he played that determined Armando Armas in Bad Boys for Life? He absolutely aced it, flaunting his knack for truly stepping into those intricate roles. Now, he's stepping into the Expendables world for the first time, even though he's rocked it in action-packed movies like The Outpost before.

50 Cent's geared up to jump into the mix for Expendables 4, putting his mind-blowing skills on display in those adrenaline-pumping movies. Think about his performances in Den of Thieves and Daring Escape - he completely aced those fight scenes, proving he's more than ready for this thrilling role. Despite not being part of the earlier Expendables movies, his explosive charisma perfectly aligns with the franchise's electrifying style.

Renowned for his awe-inspiring martial arts prowess, Uwais is expected to inject a surge of adrenaline into the Expendables team. With reflexes that rival a striking snake and combat skills that stand unmatched, he elegantly navigates through perilous predicaments. Watching Iko Uwais in action in movies like The Raid and Triple Threat is like witnessing a whirlwind of energy and explosive excitement – he truly embodies unbridled strength and adrenaline-fueled dynamism. When he joins in, get ready for a whirlwind of dynamic fight scenes and an undeniable charisma that you can feel with every intense punch. Brace for Uwais to redefine action once again.

Prepare for an electrifying addition to the Expendables universe as martial arts virtuoso Tony Jaa joins the cast of Expendables 4. Surrounded by his astonishing prowess on the battlefield and awe-inspiring mastery of martial arts, Jaa is getting ready to infuse a whole new dose of thrill into the cinematic experience. You could probably recall seeing him in those unforgettable movie characters from works such as Ong-Bak and The Protector. Interestingly, he wasn't part of the previous Expendables movies, but now he's on board, hinting at a burst of fresh energy.

Prepare for a seismic shift in Expendables 4 as Andy Garcia steps into the fray as Marsh, a character poised to redefine the very essence of power. Garcia's gravitas, honed through roles in The Godfather Part III and Ocean's Eleven, primes him for a formidable presence. His mastery of intense, nuanced roles, witnessed in Internal Affairs and The Untouchables, portends a character who navigates shadows with strategic finesse. While Garcia didn't grace previous Expendables films, his indelible mark in the movies above solidifies his potential as Marsh. Brace for his charismatic prowess and relish in the prospect of Garcia reshaping action's landscape.

RELATED:Every Actor Who Left The Expendables Franchise (& Why)

In the upcoming Expendables 4, the return of Gunner Jensen portrayed by Dolph Lundgren doesn't fail to stir up excitement. The return of the franchise's vigor is on the horizon with his comeback. His expertise in combat was vividly showcased in earlier Expendables films, where he confidently stood alongside celebrated action legends. Rocky IV and Universal Soldier blew minds with how insanely strong he was, and then came Masters of the Universe, where he totally aced taking on these huge, epic roles. When Lundgren appears on screen, he naturally commands attention, establishing his dominance and becoming an essential part of the Expendables world – a beloved aspect that's sure to intensify the heart-pounding action to unprecedented levels.

Jason Statham, renowned for his explosive charisma and gritty performances, is set to reprise his iconic role as Lee Christmas in Expendables 4. Looking back at the heart-pounding moments he's delivered in movies like The Transporter, Crank, and those high-speed Fast & Furious films, Statham steps into Christmas' shoes with a deadly mix of power and cleverness. Once more, the well-known countenance from the Expendables' earlier films reemerges, cementing his lasting stay in the action realm. Statham's consistent fervor and impressive finesse in combat, as showcased in his portrayals, hint at the heart-pounding resurgence of the persona, Lee Christmas.

Sylvester Stallone totally owns the role of Barney Ross in the Expendables installments, making him the ultimate symbol of sheer might. Heading up the crew with unwavering resolve, his battle-scarred attitude and knack for smart tactics transform him into an unstoppable powerhouse. Having helmed the Expendables since its inception, Stallone's Ross epitomizes loyalty, determination, and tactical prowess. Expendables 4 becomes this big moment where he's back, totally sealing his place in the franchise's history. Stallone's legendary parts in classics like Rambo and Rocky highlight how incredibly tough and unyielding he is, really showing off his skill at taking over the screen.

https://screenrant.com/expendables-4-characters-ranked-power/#sylvester-stallone-as-barney-ross