Stray Kids Concert Film Tops Global Box Office: Weekend Earnings & K-Pop Impact

The global box office saw an unexpected leader this weekend as Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience, a concert documentary chronicling the popular K-pop group, debuted at number one with $19.1 million in ticket sales. The film, released internationally by Universal and in North America through Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk label, signals a continued appetite for event cinema centered around musical acts.

The strong opening for Stray Kids is particularly notable given the typically slow box office environment surrounding the Super Bowl, a major television event that often draws audiences away from theaters. “A slow overall weekend for the industry can present a land of opportunity for a film like ‘Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience,’” noted Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. “The K-pop phenomenon is not to be underestimated. There is a huge appetite for these large-scale concert films for fans to enjoy in the communal environment of the movie theater.”

Domestically, the film earned $5.6 million from 1,724 locations, while international markets contributed $13.5 million to the total. This performance already surpasses previous K-pop concert films like 2019’s Bring the Soul: The Movie ($12.1 million total) and 2020’s Break the Silence: The Movie ($8.9 million total). Universal reports that the film is tracking ahead of 2023’s BTS Yet to Come to the Cinema, which ultimately grossed $29 million worldwide.

The film captures the energy of Stray Kids’ world tour and their sold-out performance at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. A significant portion of the global box office revenue – 20.5%, totaling $3.9 million – came from IMAX screenings, marking the company’s largest opening weekend for a Korean-language film.

While Stray Kids dominated the charts, Disney’s Zootopia 2 continued to perform strongly, securing the second-place position globally with $16.8 million. The animated sequel has now amassed a staggering $1.8 billion worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest grossing movie in history. Of that total, $12.8 million came from international markets and $4 million from domestic theaters.

Disney also saw success with Sam Raimi’s survival thriller, Send Help, which added $16.3 million globally in its second weekend. The film, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, has earned $53.7 million worldwide against a $40 million production budget. It remains number one domestically, bringing in $10 million in North America this weekend.

James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash rounded out the top three with $15.7 million globally, with international territories accounting for $12.2 million of that total. While a substantial figure, the film’s $1.43 billion global gross remains significantly lower than its predecessors, 2009’s Avatar ($2.9 billion) and 2022’s The Way of Water ($2.33 billion).

Beyond the top three, several other films reached notable milestones. A24’s Marty Supreme has overtaken Everything Everywhere All at Once to become the studio’s highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide total of $147 million. Lionsgate’s The Housemaid has surpassed $350 million globally, becoming a major success story for the studio, particularly in international markets where it has generated $231 million in ticket sales. And Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet has reached $70.5 million worldwide, a significant achievement for an arthouse release.

The success of Marty Supreme is particularly noteworthy for A24, having cost $70 million to produce – the studio’s largest production budget to date. The film is also a contender for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet. The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, proved to be an unexpected hit, appealing to a largely female audience and demonstrating the potential for profitability in mid-budget thrillers.

The weekend’s box office results demonstrate the diverse tastes of moviegoers and the continued importance of event cinema, particularly within the K-pop community. The strong performance of Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience underscores the growing global influence of K-pop and its ability to translate into significant box office revenue, even in a competitive marketplace.