As Alita: Battle Angel prepares for its North American wide release this week, the manga adaptation is already doing big business in Asia.
The Robert Rodriguez-directed cyberpunk film opened this past weekend in eleven different markets in Asia, earning $32 with particularly strong box office performance from South Korea. Analysts attribute the impressive East Asian box office performance to wider recognition of Yukito Kishiro's manga series from which the film is based on.
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The film has yet to open in its native Japan or the massive overseas market that is China, with the James Cameron-produced movie opening in both countries on February 22 to avoid local competition during the Lunar New Year in the region.
With initial box office forecasts for Alita's domestic opening this week predicting the film will underperform, Fox is counting on strong box office performance overseas to recoup the movie's reported $200 million production budget.
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Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Lana Condor and Eiza González. The film opens on February 15.
(via Deadline)