World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Spanish drama La Bola Negra pulls off a genuine TIFF surprise; Resident Evil smashes franchise records worldwide; and Happy Birthday to Bill Murray and Kareena Kapoor.
Morning all — confirmed US weekend numbers, as always on a Monday, but the BIG surprise is a Toronto result nobody saw coming. Here’s what happened in the world of movies during the last day.
La Bola Negra pulls off the biggest TIFF surprise in years: Forget everything we discussed yesterday. The problem with confidently predicting a “four-horse” race in this business is when three of your horses end up at the glue factory! Because none of the four films we flagged as frontrunners actually won. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s Spanish-language La Bola Negra, starring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, took the People’s Choice Award outright, with Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky and Siân Heder’s Being Heumann named first and second runners-up respectively — meaning Elsinore, Wild Horse Nine and The Debut all missed the podium entirely. It’s the first time a Netflix film has ever won the top prize, and with 13 of the last 16 winners going on to Best Picture nominations, La Bola Negra now enters this year’s Oscar race as a genuine, if unexpected, contender. Elsewhere in Toronto’s full award slate, Andrew Scott’s Elsinore did claim the International People’s Choice Award, (which is actually far from the glue factory!) and India’s Theja Rio won the Platform Prize for Angh — the first time that award carries automatic Best International Feature eligibility.
Resident Evil smashes franchise records worldwide: Turning to the numbers, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot opened to a confirmed $60 million in the US and $108.3 million worldwide, comfortably the biggest debut in the franchise’s 24-year history and the best of Cregger’s career, beating even Weapons. A 96% Rotten Tomatoes score — the best-reviewed entry the series has ever had — and a franchise-best B+ CinemaScore suggest it has real legs too. Practical Magic 2 slid to second with a soft $12 million in the US (a 60% drop, $49 million total), while Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues its remarkable run in third, its US total now the outright highest in the country’s box office history.
A note on the UK chart: I wasn’t able to confirm the actual UK-Ireland weekend gross figures at the time of writing — Pearl & Dean’s pre-release forecast had Resident Evil pegged for a modest £1–2.5 million UK opening, well behind its US performance, but I’ll fold in the confirmed actuals as soon as they’re published.
Happy Birthday to Bill Murray and Kareena Kapoor: Rounding things off, Happy Birthday today to Ghostbusters and Lost in Translation legend Bill Murray, who turns 75, alongside Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor (Omkara, 3 Idiots).
That’s your lot for today — a genuine reminder that awards season rarely goes to script. Until next time.
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