No Way Home’ Didn’t Need China To Pass $1 Billion Overseas

As Spider-Man: No Way Home spends what could be its final day atop the domestic and worldwide box office before what I assume will be its first under-$10 million domestic weekend gross, I wanted to take a moment to highlight at least one piece of genuinely impressive box office news, one which ties into the current overseas box office bonanza.  

To wit, The Battle at Lake Changjin 2 has earned $243 million in its first three days in China. I’m seeing the Korean War epic in IMAX tomorrow, as the film will almost certainly “win” the long Chinese holiday weekend even if buzzy upstart To Cool to Kill ($106 million in three days) may win the marathon. As we’ve seen a few times of late, the presumed New Years’ champion doesn’t always end up on top.  

In 2018, Detective Chinatown 2 earned $575 million while Monster Hunter 2 flatlined after a $97 million opening day for an eventual $356 million cume. Just last year, Detective Chinatown 3 opened with a record-breaking (for a single territory) $160 million Friday and $398.5 million Fri-Sun weekend only to flatline due to poor word of mouth (for many of the same mythology-first story choices that would stymie F9 months later) and end with “just” $685 million.  

Jia Ling’s Hi Mom, a time travel adventure, legged out to $835 million to become the biggest-grossing movie ever from a solo female director. We’ll see if history repeats itself, even as nobody is expecting sequel, also unofficially titled The Water Gate Bridge at Lake Changjin, to match the $915 million (mostly from China) global cum. However, the film clearly won’t need any help from any other territories to reach a likely (at least) over/under $600 million cume.  

For that matter, Spider-Man: No Way Home became the tenth film to pass $1 billion in overseas box office grosses. It’s also the only one on the list to never, ever play in China. Now, for the record it is not the only film that didn’t technically need China to pass the milestone.

Even without a penny from China, Avatar ($1.79 billion in its first theatrical release without China), Avengers: Endgame ($1.32 billion overseas sans China), Titanic ($1.242 billion sans the 2012 3-D reissue during which it earned $145 million in China), Avengers: Infinity War ($1.01 billion), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($1.007 billion) would have still passed the milestone.  

Only Jurassic World ($229 million out of $1.018 billion), The Lion King ($120 million/$1.013 billion), Fate of the Furious ($392 million/$1.162 billion) and Fate of the Furious ($393 million/$1.009 billion) needed the push, and it’s not like they were otherwise dying theatrically. With $1.003 billion overseas as of Sunday, No Way Home should vault to fourth place on the “no China” overseas grosses list by the time it wraps up.  

In terms of overseas totals, it looks to have another $50 million left in the can for an over/under $1.05 billion overseas cume. That would put it in eighth place on the all-timers list. Meanwhile, let’s watch this weekend and if Battle at Lake Changjin 2 ends up closer to Wolf Warrior 2 ($854 million) or Wandering Earth ($699 million).