Director Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which is now playing in every last one of its releasing markets, added another $6.7 million from 73 overseas territories this weekend, taking its international total to nearly $92 million. Globally, the rock and roll biopic has amassed $210 million. The film jumped by 15% in the U.K. this weekend, while Latin American territories registered a marginal 18% drop.
This is a solid result for a formidably long, adult-skewing drama that debuted in the wake of similar films tanking at the box office. Prior to Elvis’ success, other big-budget movies geared toward older audiences — The Last Duel and West Side Story to name just a couple — bombed notoriously. Perhaps the sole survivor was House of Gucci, which legged it to $156 million worldwide on the back of a buzzy Lady Gaga performance and a true crime-friendly plot.
Starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock and Roll, and Tom Hanks as his much-maligned manager Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis is Luhrmann’s first film since 2013’s The Great Gatsby. That movie concluded its worldwide theatrical run with over $350 million, thanks mostly to Leonardo DiCaprio’s star-power and the film’s revisionist take on a story set in the 1920s.
While Elvis may not surpass The Great Gatsby’s worldwide haul, it’s already the fourth-biggest Warner Bros. title of the last three years, having passed the domestic box office totals of two major pandemic-era blockbusters distributed by the studio — director Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic Dune ($108 million), and Adam Wingard’s monster mashup Godzilla vs. Kong ($100 million). It should be noted that both those movies debuted day-and-date on the HBO Max streaming service, and played in theaters at a time when audiences were more worried about the pandemic.
Reviews for Elvis have been largely positive, with praise in particular being directed at Butler’s star-making central performance. Although some criticism has been aimed at the film’s over two-and-a-half hour long run time and Hanks’ over-the-top performance. Elvis also stars Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Kodi Smit-McPhee and others. You can watch an interview with Luhrmann here, and read the film’s official synopsis down below:
Elvis’s story is seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks). As told by Parker, the film delves into the complex dynamic between the two spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).