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In its tenth weekend at the box office in a limited release at 306 theaters, NEON’s Parasite continues to suck up cash and counts $20.3M at the domestic box office. At that B.O. level, for a film that’s from a foreign country and entirely in a different language, Parasite is very, very close to busting into the top 10 foreign language films of all-time list, which is headed by 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at $128M.
This is a remarkable feat for Parasite, demonstrating that foreign films can still cross over stateside in a massive way. Also at a time when some believe that streaming has swallowed up specialty films in their entirety with pics like Roma and Marriage Story, sorry, but No: Theatrical is still king.
Parasite became the highest grossing Palme D’Or winner in France and North America in 15 years since the release of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 ($119.1M domestic, $222.4M worldwide).
In the wake of winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and opening on Nov. 8 stateside, Parasite continues to hold the best opening screen average of the year with $131K (at three theaters) in the wake of such 4Q competition from Jojo Rabbit, and this weekend’s Uncut Gems and Bombshell.
To date the pic has amassed 3 Golden Globe noms for best film drama, best director and best foreign film, a SAG cast ensemble nom, 7 Critics Choice noms including Best Picture, an Independent Spirit Nom for foreign film; best film, director and supporting actor (Kang-ho Song) from the LA Film Critics, Best foreign film from the National Board of Review and NY Film Critics among many other honors.
Note, in our top foreign language domestic list we’re not counting U.S. born wide releases like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ which was fueled by faith-based crowds and was in Aramaic (making $370.7M stateside), nor are we counting the flimmaker’s Disney major studio release of Apocalypto which was in Mayan ($50.8M). Rather, movies from foreign countries that were released on the specialty circuit and crossed over to the masses. This list would include Mexico’s Eugenio Derbez’s Instructions Not Included (even though it’s in Spanish and English) which was released by Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films and made $44.4M, now ranked in 4th place behind Sony Pictures Classics’ 4x Oscar winner Crouching Tiger, Miramax’s three-time Oscar winner Life Is Beautiful ($57.2M), and Miramax’s Hero ($53.7M).
Parasite, now ranked 11th, will very soon takeover MGM’s 1979 release of La Cage Aux Folles ($20.4M) for 10th place and could very well with its continued awards season theatrical relaunch next year potentially become the 7th or 8th highest grossing foreign language film besting Jet Li’s Fearless from 2006 which made $24.6M or Miramax’s 1995 Il Postino ($21.8M). Also in Parasite‘s mow down is 1993’s Like Water for Chocolate in 9th place with $21.6M.
In total, Parasite has grossed $134.56M global from 39 territories with 21 offshore markets yet to release including the UK, Scandinavia, Mexico. CJ handled worldwide distribution and the pic became Joon Ho’s highest grossing movie in his native South Korea over the summer with close to $73.4M; the pic’s highest territory followed by the U.S. with France counting $12.1M.