‘Disclosure Day’ tops expectations with $94m global box office opening; ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ close in on $550m combined

Worldwide box office: June 12-14

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

’Disclosure Day’ a box office comeback for Spielberg

JUNE 15 UPDATE: Steven Spielberg has returned to box office winning ways with the launch of Universal’s Disclosure Day, opening with a confirmed $93.9m – ahead of a predicted $65m debut. Honours are fairly even with $44.5m in North America and $49.5m across 72 international markets.

Spielberg is coming off a commercially patchy run as director: in 2022, his autobiographical drama The Fabelmans achieved a worldwide lifetime total of $45.6m, while in 2021 the pricey West Side Story maxed out at $76.0m. The director’s last hit was eight years ago with 2018’s Ready Player One ($607.9m worldwide, boosted by $218.5m in China).

In international markets, Disclosure Day performed best in UK/Ireland with a strong confirmed four-day $7.3m haul, topping the box office in the territory.

Mexico comes second with an $4.2m – pulling in cinema audiences despite the country co-hosting World Cup football.

The UK/Ireland performance on Disclosure Day is in line with Ready Player One (not adjusted for inflation), while in Mexico the new Spielberg film is ahead of Ready Player One.

France produced $3.1m followed by China on $2.9m and Australia on $2.8m. In China, a strong performance on 725 Imax screens accounted for approximately 27% of business. The film is playing into the Dragon Boat Festival, which runs June 19-21. However, the market in China for US studio films has shifted significantly since the days of Ready Player One, and Disclosure Day will not repeat that film’s stellar success there.

Disclosure Day earned $2.7m in Spain and $2.6m in Brazil, whose national team played their opening World Cup game on Saturday (June 13). Both markets saw openings ahead of Ready Player One.

The film’s top 10 international markets on opening weekend are rounded out by Italy (a confirmed $2.2m) Germany ($2.0m) and South Korea ($1.4m). Japan has yet to open, and welcomes the film on October 1.

The production budget for Disclosure Day is reported at $115m – well below the $155-175m reported for Ready Player One.

Disclosure Day is benefiting from the growth in popularity of Imax and premium large format screens. Imax accounts for $13.8m of the film’s $92.9m global opening – just under 15%.

‘Obsession’ pulling ahead of ‘Backrooms’

Since landing in the marketplace on the last weekend of May, A24’s Backrooms has had more box office power than Focus Features’ mid-May release Obsession – with the former benefiting from being the new shiny thing, as well as audience familiarity with the ‘backrooms’ concept.

A week ago, Backrooms had narrowed the worldwide box office gap with Obsession to just $12.1m – with $212.7m after two weekends of play for Backrooms, compared to $224.8m after four weekends for Obsession.

However, that gap does not look set to close. Obsession has been enjoying strong holds week by week, whereas Backrooms is suffering weekly erosion.

The fifth weekend of play for Obsession saw Curry Barker’s film gross a confirmed $34.6m worldwide, taking the total after five weekends to $287.2m. Kane Parsons’ Backrooms added an estimated $23.2m worldwide, and the total after three weekends is $262.3m. The gap between the two films’ cumulative totals has widened to $24.2m.

For the fourth consecutive weekend, Obsession’s North American, international and worldwide box office is bigger than for its opening session. The film dropped by 25% in North America from the previous weekend, and by 16% in international markets.

Obsession has now overtaken the worldwide lifetime totals of both Get Out ($259.9m) and The Blair Witch Project ($248.6m).

Backrooms saw another steep drop in North America (down 57%) and also across international markets (down 50%). Still, a total above $260m so far is an extraordinarily successful outcome for a film reportedly budgeted at $10m, and there is clear potential for sequels and spinoffs. (Obsession could become an anthology series, with a succession of new characters experiencing a disastrous wish.)

Among international markets, UK/Ireland continues to lead on Obsession, with $17.7m to date. The film has done notably well in India ($8.0m so far). Future key markets include Germany and Spain (both late June), Japan (mid-July) and South Korea (early September).

Combined, the two YouTube creator horrors have grossed $548.8m worldwide – from a combined production budget of less than $11m.

‘The Furious’ boosted by China box office

Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious has debuted with an estimated $19.6m worldwide including previews, including $13.5m in home market China. Lionsgate, which released in North America (opening with an estimated $2.75m) has worldwide rights to the marital-arts actioner outside Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.

Lionsgate acquired the film out of its TIFF Midnight Madness premiere last September. The Furious stars Xie Miao as a man whose daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network. After he receives no help from the corrupt police, he sets out on a rampage to find her himself – with help from a journalist (Joe Taslim) whose wife has been kidnapped.

The Furious knocked sleeper hit Dear You off the top spot in China. Dear You added another $8.5m, and now stands at $254.0m. The surprise low-budget hit, which is primarily in local language Teochew, is now set for release in international markets, including UK/Ireland and France via Trinity CineAsia. 

Studio holdovers

Studio holdover titles Scary Movie (Paramount), Michael (Lionsgate/Universal), Masters Of The Universe (Amazon MGM Studios), The Mandalorian And Grogu (Disney) and The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Disney) all remain in the worldwide top 10.

Scary Movie dropped a steep 73% in North America and 55% in international markets. Still, with a production budget at just $30m, this belated sequel (following 2013’s Scary Movie 5) looks like a profitable endeavour for Paramount. Worldwide box office is $173.2m so far.

Masters Of The Universe likewise saw some big drops – down 71% in North America, and 64% in international markets. Worldwide total for the Mattel Studios title is $86.1m, and the production budget is a reported $170-200m.

Michael has reached $934.0m – overtaking fellow Graham King production Bohemian Rhapsody ($911.0m) to become the biggest music biopic of all time at the worldwide box office.

• US Department of Justice approves Paramount-WBD merger