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.
Its a strong start for the $130 million-budgeted film, which was co-financed by Warner Bros. and China Media Capital. Like the original, 2018s 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 thats significantly below the originals 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 Gerwigs fantasy-comedy Barbie joined the billion-dollar club after just 17 days on the big screen. Its the fastest Warner Bros. release (and eighth in the studios 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 Nolans 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 films 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 Nolans 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, according to Universal, joining Bohemian Rhapsody, The Passion of the Christ and American Sniper.
Elsewhere at the box office, Sony and Blumhouses 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 Universals sensation M3GAN ($180 million).