Universal Hits $3B At International Box Office In Industry-Record Time – And A First For The Studio

The studio hit $1B, then $2B and now $3B in record time. Universal just keeps taking bites out of box office records domestically, internationally and worldwide. Driven by a plethora of hits — from Fifty Shades Of Grey and Furious 7 to Jurassic World and Minions — Universal Pictures International has just jumped past the $3B milestone, becoming the fastest of any studio to do that. Furious 7 and Jurassic World handed UPI two-thirds of that gross. It also marks the first time in its 103-year history that Universal has reached that height at the international box office.

The hits are expected to keep coming for the studio with Judd Apatow’s next comedy Trainwreck, starring Amy Schumer and Bill Hader, which bows in two weeks, and F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton, which arrives August 14. And then … expect a bit of a breather from the studio.

Now, let’s look at the lineup UPI has had: Fifty Shades Of Grey ($403.6 million internationally), Fast & Furious 7 ($1.16 billion), Pitch Perfect 2 ($96.6 million), Jurassic World ($843.9 million and counting) and early results in 26 international territories from Minions ($141.7 million).

Now for the records — though they are seriously too numerous to count: Because of Jurassic World, Universal was able to have bragging rights to the quickest climb to $1B domestic — beating the previous record ascendance achieved by Paramount on June 22, 2008. It also hit the $3B worldwide combo of domestic/international earlier this year, passing Fox’s previous race to the milestone on June 30, 2010.

Other records? Universal currently has three of the four highest-grossing films of the year, and its films opened No. 1 worldwide three times in 2015 and have been No. 1 at the international box office for nine weeks — more than any other studio.

Now let’s look at the individual pictures in order of appearance: Fifty Shades of Grey is studio’s highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The film has grossed $403.6M at the international box office.

Fast & Furious 7 (as it was titled in international markets) grossed $1.16B at the international box office. Among countless milestones, Fast & Furious 7 is the highest-grossing film ever in China ($390.8M) and the third-highest-grossing film at the international box office ever, joining Avatar and Titanic as only the films in history to reach $1B in international box office. Um, that is, until the dinosaurs came stomping through.

Jurassic World became the fastest film to reach $1B worldwide, doing so after only 13 days in release. It went down in history as having had the biggest opening weekend of all-time internationally, domestically and worldwide. It ranks as the fifth-highest-grossing film of all-time worldwide behind Avatar, Titanic, Marvel’s The Avengers and Universal’s own Furious 7, and is known as the ninth-highest-grossing film internationally.

And it’s still playing, grabbing a total of $43.3M last weekend alone, with its final territory, Japan, opening August 5.

Also gotta give props to breakout hit Pitch Perfect 2, the musical comedy that came out of nowhere and started shoving Mad Max: Fury Road around in heated competition, especially Down Under. The female-directed film (Elizabeth Banks) is still playing in 49 territories and is on the verge of crossing $100M, stepping to the tune of around $280M worldwide to date. It has yet to open in 13 more territories before its performance is through.

“We are proud of our slate and the accompanying success, which is due to the hard work of our filmmakers and our tireless Universal Pictures team,” UPI President of Distribution Duncan Clark said in a statement today. “From our production group, who have been so brilliant at nurturing our homegrown franchises, to the best marketing and distribution teams in the business — both in London and Los Angeles — and our dedicated teams around the world, this year has been a joy for every member of our organization.”