Universal‘s international release of Lionsgate‘s Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, opened in most of its 82 markets Wednesday with an $18.5M first day (which includes Tuesday previews). Back out those previews, and Wednesday alone was $16.6M.
China goes Friday, and India, Bolivia and Pakistan open Thursday in what is an overall foreign play in 23,230 locations and 50,529 screens.
Biggest results came from both France and UK Ireland on Wednesday, which respectively minted $2.6M.
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Michael is at 743 screens in France and charted the biggest opening day for a biopic ever, coming in well above the Wednesday openings of both Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody. The pic was the No. 1 rank, capturing a strong 41% of admissions.
UK & Ireland also saw the biggest opening day for a musical biopic of all time, ahead of the Wednesday opening of Bohemian Rhapsody and well above the Friday openings for Elvis and Rocketman. Michael repped 71% of the total market Wednesday, and of course, it was No. 1 for the day.
Italy delivered $1.3M on Wednesday at 480 locations with more than 2.3k showtimes, dominating the market with a 72% share. The Antoine Fuqua-directed pic written by John Logan produced by and Graham King posted the highest per-theater average by a significant margin. And, yes, it’s the biggest opening day ever for a musical biopic, above Bohemian Rhapsody.
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Mexico expanded to wider previews on Wednesday, adding $1.1M to reach a running total of $1.6M. No. 1 pic with a strong 64% market share.
Spain also had Michael at No. 1 with $1.1M on Wednesday across 520 screens and a 62% market share. It was the highest opening day for a biopic ever there, outgrossing both the Wednesday opening of Bohemian Rhapsody and the Thursday opening of Oppenheimer.
In Germany, where Jackson toured the most, the movie made $1M on Wednesday at 849 screens, a No. 1 55% market share. That Day 1 came in ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody’s Thursday opening, representing the biggest opening day for a musical biopic ever in the market.
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In Australia, Michael delivered an excellent $1.0M from 290 locations on opening Wednesday. This is the biggest opening day for a musical biopic ever, beating local filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.
In Brazil, Michael posted $651k for a running cume with previews of $2M. The combined preview result represents the biggest ever for a non-superhero, non-franchise film in the market. The Jaafar Jackson-starring movie continues to be No. 1, repping 68% of the marketshare.
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Stateside, Imax and premium-format fan screenings were held Wednesday night starting at 6 p.m. That money will be rolled into Thursday’s previews, which began at noon. Some box office sources told us that presales for Michael were exceeding Project Hail Mary‘s; that Ryan Gosling movie scored $12M from both early previews and first Thursday showtimes.
Heading into the weekend, it was forecast that Michael would open to $150M worldwide, $65M-$70M of that coming from domestic, which would represent a record for a musical biopic ahead of 2015’s Straight Outta Compton ($60.2M).
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