Universal’s The Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise started with $141.8 million from overseas and $174.0 million globally. That makes for the largest global opening weekend of Tom Cruise’s career, ahead of 2005’s War of the Worlds.
Led by China with $52.2 million, Mummy captured first place in 46 of its 63 markets. It also ranks as the 5th-best overseas and 7th-best global opening of the year so far.
The film — more than almost any other in recent memory — was truly targeted towards an international audience first. Among the top 100 worldwide openings of all time, only two movies earned more than 80 percent of their global openings from overseas, and both were from Universal in the past three months: April’s The Fate of the Furious with 81.8 percent, then The Mummy with 81.5 percent.
“We hit some really sunny numbers across the board, but we did shine more brightly in Asia, China and Korea specifically,” Universal’s President of International Distribution Duncan Clark tells Boxoffice in an interview. “It was a hot weekend in Europe, which always tends to improve the box office no matter what the movie, especially summer movie. Tom [Cruise] was travelling for us around the world, doing stuff for us in London, Taiwan, New York — all hands on deck.”
Domestically it was a different story, as the movie took in $32.2 million, a second place start as expected. The film begins 25.6 percent below the openings for the original 1999 The Mummy and even further behind the 2001 sequel The Mummy Return, despite ticket prices costing significantly less back then and Tom Cruise ostensibly being a much bigger draw than original lead Brendan Fraser.
The new installment was hurt by its poor word of mouth including a 17 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest scores for a wide release this year.
“I think it was always intended to be a global effort,” Universal’s President of Domestic Distribution Nick Carpou tells Boxoffice in an interview. “From a domestic standpoint, we would have enjoyed more gross on opening weekend. Certainly it was a challenge from a critical standpoint. But our hope is that it will play out and audiences will continue to find it.”
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