While the month of August has been a rather quiet time at the box office, that doesn’t mean people aren't going to the movies. One of the prime examples of this has been the holdover Nope directed by modern horror icon Jordan Peele. Since this critically acclaimed mysterious UFO story premiered in late July, genre fans can’t stop talking about the film. Nope has been killing it at the domestic box office, but over the last few weeks, it has started opening around the world. This weekend Nope has made $8.3 million at the international box office bringing its overseas total to $31.1 million.
This is due to the film opening in 20 new markets including Mexico, Japan, Brazil, and the Middle East. In Japan, Nope made $0.8 Million which is well above Peele’s first two films. That’s almost 3 times more than Us and more than 3.5 times more than Get Out. IMAX also had a strong showing in the region making up 21% of the ticket sales. Mexico opened with $0.9 million, good enough for second place, and the film made up a whopping 25% of the total market’s box office. Again IMAX had a strong following alongside 4D formats in Mexico with each making up 5% of the total box office respectively.
Nope in Brazil had the fourth-biggest opening for the horror genre during the pandemic era being at number one with $0.6 million despite a handful of new releases. Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Colombia, and Argentina had good starts as well with $0.5 million, $1.3 million, and $0.1 million for the latter two regions respectively. In terms of the holdover markets, Nope is still scaring up the box office with the United Kingdom and Ireland leading the way making $0.8 million at the number four spot while Korea made $0.5 million in its second weekend at the number six spot. Other highlights include France passing $3 million total in its third weekend.
So what does this all tell us about Nope? The answer is way simpler than the film itself. People around the world are running to the theater to see this cryptically haunting tale. The film had one of the most interesting marketing campaigns in recent memory, keeping its main plot hook a mystery for most of it, which made audiences feel the need to see it on the biggest screen possible. The horror community has put a lot of faith in Peele because of Get Out and Us and the director didn’t disappoint with his third film. Nope is not only a love letter to classic horror spectacles like Jaws and the UFO craze of the 20th century, this was a deeply satisfying story about our quest for human connection. The film was funny, had masterful scenes of heart-pounding suspense, and the UFO part of this grand narrative certainly delivered, but the film’s biggest strengths were its rich characters and themes of family.
We came for the thought-provokingly insane quest for the truth, and we left realizing that the answers we were looking for didn’t come from the sky, they came from the people right next to us. That’s what made this film so memorable and a must-see in theaters, particularly in the IMAX format. Peele tapped into that sweet Spielberg well which ferociously made us afraid of the sky just like we were scared of the water back in 1975. However, he also didn’t forget it was the compelling characters that elevated Jaws’ biggest terrors. Not the other way around like most modern horror films fall into the trap of doing today.
Nope made $10.5 million this weekend which has now brought its worldwide total up to a very impressive $148.7 million. This has to do with Peele’s past filmography, strong reviews, and a compelling mystery, but it also just shows the power of good meaningful storytelling. These box office numbers prove that. Nope is still in theaters, but the film is also now available to rent at home on all the major VOD services.
Check out Collider's interview with Peele below: