World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
The Odyssey smashes Nolan’s own China record; in India, Awarapan 2 trounces Batwara 1947 out of the gate; and Tony gets warm reviews on its UK/US crossover weekend.
Here’s what happened in the world of movies during the last 24 hours.
The Odyssey obliterates its own China projections: Remember Maoyan’s modest $10.4 million opening-day forecast from yesterday? Scrap that. Christopher Nolan’s epic actually grossed $15.9 million on its Chinese opening day — spread across a comparatively tiny 57,000 screenings and including $7.6 million carried over from previews — making it the biggest single-day opening of Nolan’s career in the market. It also edged past Jurassic World: Dominion‘s $15.1 million to become the ninth-biggest opening day for a Hollywood film in China since the pandemic, and with an 8.3 out of 10 Douban score (the Chinese equivalent to IMDB) behind it, industry watchers reckon it could beat both Tenet and Oppenheimer to become Nolan’s biggest three-day weekend in the country.
Awarapan 2 leaves Batwara 1947 in the dust: As trailed yesterday, the Independence Day box office clash is over almost before it began. Emraan Hashmi’s Awarapan 2 stormed to a career-best ₹21.89 crore ($2.3m) opening day, comfortably beating even the bullish pre-release estimates and putting it on course for a ₹80 crore ($8.m) opening weekend. Sunny Deol’s Batwara 1947, by contrast, has landed closer to its single-digit-crore worst-case scenario. Given Apne beat the original Awarapan back in 2007, there’s a certain symmetry to Hashmi getting his revenge on Deol nearly two decades later. But its a very different story from the coin-flip it looked like yesterday.
Tony wins over critics on its opening weekend: With A24’s Tony now playing in both the UK and US, reviews have landed and they’re largely kind. Dominic Sessa’s performance as a teenage Anthony Bourdain is being singled out across the board — several critics have specifically namechecked how he builds on the promise he showed in The Holdovers — with Antonio Banderas’s mentor-chef also drawing praise. The consensus verdict is a film that’s “more of a light bite than a full meal” but a flavourful one regardless; a few reviews note it loses some steam in its final act as it shies away from the harder edges of Bourdain’s own story. Well worth a watch by the sound of it (though with a family holiday looming, it might be a few weeks before I get to see/review this one.)
That’s all for today.
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