Marvel’s peak era is over: Captain America: ...

‘Ne Zha 2’ dominates again after North American debut.

Ne Zha 2 held onto the top spot in Comscore’s worldwide box office chart this weekend, despite facing competition from a couple of strong new releases.

The Chinese animated sequel grossed an estimated $279.6m from four territories over the weekend, bringing its global total so far to $1.64bn. As well as continuing its remarkable Chinese New Year run in its home market, the film opened in North America through CMC Pictures with an estimated $7.2m from 660 theatres, good enough for fifth spot on the domestic box office chart. The take is expected to increase to $8.3m for the four-day weekend after Monday’s official Presidents’ Day US holiday is taken into account.

Detective Chinatown 1900, one of the other Chinese films on last week’s global chart, dropped from second place to fourth place this weekend, taking $26m from eight territories for a total to date of $443.5m.

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ makes strong global start

Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World was the big new competitor this weekend and emerged in second place on the chart with an impressive global take of $180.9m from 53 territories. International markets yielded $92.4m and North America $88.5m for the three-day weekend (with the take expected to hit $100m for the four-day weekend).

Disney said the debut represented the biggest domestic opening of 2025 and an international start 4% ahead of that for 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier in like-for-like markets at current rates (excluding China).

The new release is the fourth big-screen entry in Marvel Studios’ Captain America series and the first with Anthony Mackie taking over the title role from Chris Evans. Julius Onah directed the story of the shield-carrying superhero investigating a global plot.

With some recent Marvel releases appearing to fall victim to superhero fatigue, Brave New World was not expected to measure up to the performance of the series’ most recent entry, Captain America: Civil War, which took $1.15bn worldwide in 2016. The performance of Winter Soldier, which ended up with $714.4m worldwide, offered a more likely comparison.

Brave New World opened at number one in all major European markets except the UK, where it came in second. It was number one in every market in Latin America, and the top non-local film in every market across the Asia-Pacific region.

The new entry’s top-grossing markets were China, with $10.5m, the UK, with $8.5m, Mexico with $6.6m and Korea with $5.6m. France produced $4.7m, Australia $3.8m, Brazil and Germany $3.6m each and Japan $3.1m.

‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’ playing international field

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy began its international rollout this week, taking an estimated $32.8m from 73 territories over the weekend, according to Comscore, for a total to date of $34.3m and third place on the chart. Universal reported a weekend take of $32.3m for the 70 markets in which it is distributing, with France, where Studiocanal released on Wednesday (June 12), bringing the total to date to $35.5m.

The Universal Pictures/Working Title film, with co-financing from Studiocanal and Miramax, is the forth in the Bridget Jones series, with Renée Zellweger returning as the title character, now a single mother in emotional limbo, and Michael Morris directing.

The new entry – which made its US debut this weekend on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service – had the widest opening of any Bridget Jones title and achieved the biggest opening gross for the series in like-for-like Universal markets, said the distributor. The most recent previous entry in the series, 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, went on to gross $187.7m in the international marketplace.

Mad About The Boy had by far the most success in home market UK/Ireland, topping the local chart with a gross of $14.8m, breaking the territory’s record for a romantic comedy opening set in 2004 by second franchise entry Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason.

In Australia, the latest entry opened in second place on the local chart with $3.4m; in Poland it topped the chart with $2.2m; in the Netherlands it was number one with $1.9m; and in Spain it was number two with just over $1m.

’Paddington In Peru’ arrives in North America

Studiocanal’s Paddington In Peru moved up from eighth place on last weekend’s global chart to fifth this weekend with $20.3m from 54 markets, for a total to date of $128.8m.

Included in the total was an estimated $13m from the film’s three-day opening weekend in North America, where Sony Pictures (which also has key international territories including Latin America) is distributing. The US debut, which placed the family film second only to Captain America: Brave New World on the local chart, compared favourably to the $11m three-day opening in 2018 of Paddington 2.

Local films make a mark

Indian historical drama Chhaava arrived in sixth place with an estimated $19.1m from openings in 21 territories. The Hindi-language film had debuts in India, the UK and North America, where it grossed $1.8m through Yash Raj Films.

French comedy God Save The Tuche entered the chart in tenth place with an estimated gross of just over $5m from two territories, for a total to date of $15.4m.

Directed by and starring Jean-Paul Rouve, the film was produced by Pathe with a number of French partners.