What was old at the global box office this weekend was new as Disney/Marvel Studio’s Avengers Endgame: Encore led in an exceptional take for a re-release of $86M WW.

Beamed Andrew Cripps, Disney’s Global Boss of Distribution, “The success of the re-release reiterates that there’s a massive fanbase for this franchise, and the fact that it’s a seven-year old movie on Disney+, it’s an incredible opening.”

Close to 14% of Encore‘s cash came from Imax which made $13.7M off the superhero pic for $4M domestic and $9.7M abroad.

Yes, with a handful of minutes of extra footage of the Russo Brothers’ upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, Encore was an advertisement for that movie, but one which yielded more bucks to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe with $35 billion global across 38 titles. After this weekend, the lifetime worldwide take for Avengers: Endgame moves to $2.885B behind Avatar‘s $2.92B and ahead of Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s updated global tally of $2.495B.

With $26M stateside, that repped the third best start for a re-release behind 1997’s re-issue of Star Wars ($35.9M) and 2011’s The Lion King 3D ($30.2M).

Overseas with $60M, Encore was the second highest foreign debut for a re-release behind Titanic 3D in 2012 at current rates. That James Cameron movie at the height of the 3D crazy did $67M boosted by China.

Avengers: Endgame bowed to No. 1 in China ($13.5M), UK ($5.4M), Mexico ($4.2M), Italy ($2.6M), Brazil ($2.2M), Germany ($2M), Australia, and was the best non-local in Japan ($2.6M) and Spain ($1.7M). Disney estimates that Encore was the highest ever opening weekend for a MPA re-release in UK, Mexico and Brazil as well as Netherlands, Greece, S. Africa, Poland, Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan and all smaller Latin American territories.

Pic was second highest opening ever for a MPA title in Italy, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Argentina.

Other No. 1 openings were Austria, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Bosnia, Croatia, Czechia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan (non-local), Lebanon, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, India (non-local with $2.8M), Indonesia (non-local), Vietnam (non-local), Argentina and all smaller Latin American territories.

The Anthony and Joe Russo directed movie ranked second in Korea in the holiday period of Chuseok holidays (Sept. 24-27) that’s described as the country’s Thanksgiving by sources. The No. 1 pic in Korea was The Assassin in a box office weekend where three local films dominated the top 5.

France did $2.1M, but Paramount’s Heart of the Beast led there with a Brad Pitt wow factor, that David Ayer directed military vet and dog feature seeing $3.8M.

Second place worldwide is a fight between zombies and Pitt. Sony/Constantin’s Resident Evil posted a second frame of $50.3M, $27M of that coming from 65 overseas markets on 12,500+ screens. Cume abroad in both Sony and Constantin territories is $93M with an overall $196.5M WW.

UK, Mexico, and Australia each set franchise records in just the second weekend with market totals of $11.5M ($2.9M weekend), $9.0M ($2.2M weekend), and $5.4M ($1.7M weekend), respectively. France (Metropolitan) earned $1.8M (-39%) for a market take of $5.0M, and Germany (Constantin) grossed $1.5M (-40%) for a local cume of $4.5M cume. Next stops are China on Oct. 5 and Japan on Oct. 9 for the flesh eating beings.

Heart of the Beast barked up $50.1M WW with $30.1M abroad from 63 markets. As we told you, France was tops, but also New Zealand and this is the ultimate outdoors film for them ($454K including previews from 128 sites. Also big was United Arab Emirates where a lot of yank moviegoers are with $1M, No. 1 at 58 sites. Middle East grossed $2.6M on the pic.

Rest all including previews (except Argentina) were UK (No. 3, $2.7M at 559 locations), Mexico (No. 2, $2.4M), Australia (No. 3 with $1.6M at 307), Spain (No. 3, $1.5M at 326), Italy (No. 3 $1.2M at 370), Japan (No. 4, $1.2M at 344), Germany ($1M, No. 3 at 428 sites), Brazil (No. 4 $925K at 585 locations), Colombia (No. 2 $872K at 210), Netherlands (No. 3 $574K at 116 locations), Taiwan (No. 3 $419K at 90 sites), Poland (No. 3 grossing $407K at 178 locations), India (opened at #5 grossing $392K at 345 locations, Peru (No. 3 $304K at 108 locations), Ukraine (No. 1 $306K at 171 locations), Argentina (No. 3 $292K at 180 locations), Portugal (No. 1 $290K at 48 locations), Hong Kong (No. 4 $285K at 57), and Belgium (No. 3 grossing $276K at 80 locations).

A24’s Primetime with $19.1M stateside, had a limited launch abroad with $1.2M in France, Germany, Austria, India, Taiwan, Baltic’s and Iceland for an overall $20.3M WW. Of that France did $530K and Germany/Austria was $325K. What’s interesting is some distribution sources believe, at least stateside, that Heart of the Beast is going to have a fantastic multiple off that A- CinemaScore, while Primetime is front loaded with a B. I beg to differ as Primetime sells itself when you sit in theater, however, the truth will be in the numbers.

Universal’s second weekend foreign, first weekend in North America of DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island did $18.4M WW ($5.6M foreign from 34 territories and $12.8M domestic).

Philippines led with No. 1 $1.5M this weekend at 280 locations, well above major tentpoles Super Mario Bros, Despicable Me 4, Zootopia 2 and Minions: The Rise of Gru. It’s the biggest opening of the year for a Universal title there ahead of Odyssey. Spain did $500K at 390 sites for a No. 5 rank. The film has received a strong 7.3 FilmAffinity Score, just below The Wild Robot (7.5) and above Inside Out 2 (7.1) and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (7.0). Italy was also No. 5 bow with $500K at 372. Brazil did $400K, No. 6 at 682. That includes $190K in previews. Israel posted No. 1 with $300K at 70 sites in line with Trolls and above Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Wish, Hoppers and The Wild Robot. Forgotten Island opens into Sukkot Holidays, which run from Sept. 25 to Oct. 3. Korea bowed to $219K at No. 10 at 550 sites, which includes $117K in previews. The film has received a strong CGV Egg score (96%). Sweden saw $150K at 132 in No. 5, an opening at this level is in line with Elio, Goat and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. Australia held over with $737K in weekend 2 for a $1.8M cume. School holidays are taking place in 50% of the market, with the remaining 50% starting next Monday. Forgotten Island ranks No.4, as the top family film in the market, above Coyote vs. Acme (No.8), PAW Patrol (No.7) and Shaun the Sheep (No.10). Mexico added $300k in weekend dos to reach $1.4M cume. Forgotten Island ranks No.7 in the market.

Former Disney exec Kevin Mayer, who oversaw his former employer’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox, has shared his thoughts on the Paramount-Warner Bros merger.

The pragmatic exec, who has been co-CEO of Blackstone-backed media company Candle Media since 2021, told a panel at the Zurich Summit this weekend that consolidation in the media and entertainment sector was inevitable in a period of declining revenues.

“If we’re going to be intellectually honest about answering this question, you have to also ask yourself, what would happen if the merger didn’t happen,” he said in a response to a question on the merger.

Mayer said the film industry was in a phase of decline with “fewer and fewer” great financial outcomes, and that the status quo of a number of independent studios working with declining revenues no longer made financial sense.

“Their ability to finance, to distribute and to market product is going to start to deteriorate very substantially. It already has, frankly. If we keep the standalone, the status quo, you’re going to have a larger number of very weak companies unable to do much in the future. That’s the future you’ve got to measure this consolidation against, in my opinion, not against some fanciful future where everything is as good as it was five, 10 years ago”.

Mayer said he expected Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to keep his promises around producing 30 movies a year for at least five years after sealing of the deal.

“I did this once. I negotiated Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox, and I was responsible for integrating those two companies,” he said.

“David Ellison made some promises. I expect he’ll keep them. We have public promises that are that explicit… are very hard to reverse yourselves. I think for a period of time… for five years, he’ll do what he says. He’ll make the movies and he’ll release them theatrically, he’ll do it all.”

Mayer said he felt it was likely that Warner Bros. would continue to operate as a separate entity, based on his own experiences at Disney.

The biggest rub in the deal, he suggested, would be job losses in the industry, even if believed consolidation has “necessary”.

“When you hear these promises of $6 billion in synergies, that’s a euphemism for a lot of layoffs… That’s an extremely difficult thing, obviously, and that’s what I think this merger portends.”

It felt like Naomi Watts covered it all in a Zurich Film Festival masterclass on Sunday afternoon: dreams, drama and, of course, the menopause.

The British star opened up with host Max Loong about struggling for around a decade auditioning in Los Angeles before she would go on to meet David Lynch and star in his career-transforming Mulholland Drive. Watts was speaking the day after a glitzy Zurich ceremony in which she accepted the fest’s prestigious Golden Eye award for her latest feature, The Housewife.

The conversation began with Watts’ childhood and acting aspirations. Her ambitions were made a little more complicated when Watts’ mother moved the family from the U.K. to Australia when she was only a young teenager.

In a bizarre way, meeting the late, great Lynch — whom Watts did an impeccable impression of, pretend cigarette and all — was almost like therapy for the actress, who landed that breakout role at the age of 31. She was worn down by Hollywood’s faux interest in her talent and the fickle nature with which casting directors operated. “[You’d] line up and see 10 or 15 girls, running their lines, looking much better for the part than you do, and it was really a grind,” Watts told the room.

“That 10 years before I met David Lynch, I just became so locked up and I felt worthless,” she continued. “My agent actually pulled me aside because she put together a reel with some of the work I’d done in Australia — little bits of things — and she said, ‘We need to have a heart-to-heart. Come in and talk to me because I don’t understand why you’re not getting these jobs.’”

Watts was told by that agent: “‘Honey, you’re too intense. You’re freaking people out.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, no shit. I’m desperate. I’m three months behind on my rent. I’m getting evicted! They told me I wasn’t funny last week. I’m trying to be funny now. They told me I wasn’t sexy. I’m trying to be sexy!’” she said, likely validating a lot of women in the room vying for a foot in the door. “You reshape yourself to try and read the tone of what is needed, and it becomes freaky. And I just couldn’t be myself. I was either an extreme version of myself or a diluted version. I was further and further away from myself, and it took a genius like David Lynch to be able to see beyond all of that weirdness that I had built up and undo it and get to the real me.”

At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of the beloved Mulholland Drive, in which Watts plays an aspiring actress who arrives in L.A. and befriends a car crash victim, she remembers sitting in the car with co-star Justin Theroux, about to hit the iconic red carpet, when a sentimental song came on the radio. “The crowds are there waiting, and the song changed to Cat Stevens’ ‘Morning Has Broken,’ and this was the song that had played at my dad’s funeral.”

Watts became teary at this point in the conversation, earning a raucous round of applause from the crowd. Her father, Peter Watts, a road manager and audio engineer who went on the road with Pink Floyd, died of an apparent heroin overdose when she was just seven years old. “It was always a very meaningful song, and I just remember turning to Justin and went, ‘Oh my God, that song!’ […] Thank God I wasn’t alone in that car [and had] Justin because all I could think about was my mascara running down my [face]. He just grabbed my hand and he was like, ‘Come on. Let’s go. Let’s do it.’ I put my head up and off we went onto the red carpet, and it was wonderful. David was obviously very beloved and we just held on tight to each other.”

Mulholland Drive is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and made an international superstar out of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Watts. It was a modest commercial success, making around $20 million on a $15 million budget.

Towards the end of the masterclass, Watts took a moment to talk about her menopause activism, revealing how her four-year-old menopause and wellness company, Stripes Beauty, came to be. “Menopause has become a huge topic of conversations [and a] passion because I went into it early on in my life and had no clues about what was going on with my body and there was no open conversation,” she said. “Once I talked about it with my partner, who’s now my husband, and he was encouraging of it, I just thought: ‘How about I just own this story? How about I get ahead of it? I’m in on the joke that is not actually a joke, but why should we suffer?’” Watts’ goal was to inject normalcy into menopause, whether it’s through “humor, storytelling, just connectivity, or product solution.”

She lauded her husband of three years, fellow actor Billy Crudup, for being curious about menopause — and implored other men to replicate his openness. “I was hiding in the bathroom trying to scratch off my estrogen patch, and he was like, ‘Is everything okay?’ And I told him what was going on, and I really was so nervous and thinking, ‘Oh God, I bet he’s not going to want to be with me now. He knows I’m in menopause.’”

Crudup’s reaction was quite the opposite. “He was like, ‘Hold on a second. We’re the same age, and that’s great that you’re taking care of yourself. Love science, love medicine. And why are you ashamed? That’s fantastic. Thanks for telling me.’ And so instantly, I felt, ‘Oh my God, this is so sweet and generous and sexy!’ Like, that just felt really intimate. And I felt safer than I’d ever felt,” continued Watts. “And I told him that I wanted to create a company for women who are not clued in, and the company would be about hydration from scalp to vag.”

Watts comes to Zurich promoting The Housewife, directed by Ben Shirinian and co-starring Tye Sheridan, Michael Imperioli and Luke Evans. It is based on a true story and set in 1964 New York. When a young journalist tracks down a potential Nazi officer living secretly in Queens, he befriends the lead suspect’s charming wife. But the investigation soon takes a disturbing turn.

Her fellow Golden Eye recipients include John Turturro and Tom Hiddleston this year. The 22nd Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.