First ‘Conclave,’ Now ‘Hamnet’ — Focus Features Has Found the Secret to International Box Office Hits for Grownups

In Britain, the highest-grossing film among the year’s BAFTA nominees is not “Sinners” or “Marty Supreme” or “One Battle After Another,” it’s “Hamnet,” Chloé Zhao’s heartrending Shakespearean drama that quietly has become an international box office hit.

Since opening in the U.S. over the Thanksgiving holiday, “Hamnet” has risen to $70.7 million worldwide at the box office, with nearly 70 percent of that haul coming internationally. In the UK and Ireland, it so far has made $20.3 million in just four weeks, opening across the pond on January 9, and that’s about a million bucks shy of what it’s managed to do in the U.S. in 11 weeks.

It is, in fact, the second-highest grossing movie of 2026 thus far in Britain (behind “The Housemaid”), and there’s evidence to suggest it’s only just peaking.

“Hamnet” is a very British film, based on a bestselling novel by Maggie O’Farrell about national treasure William Shakespeare, so it’s not a surprise it’s resonating with that crowd. The film didn’t even open #1, but climbed there in its most recent fourth weekend. It’s capitalizing on that word of mouth just ahead of the BAFTAs on February 22, where it figures to pick up some awards and ride that steam into the Oscars next month.

With the film due to open in a few other key markets in the coming weeks, it’s not out of the question that “Hamnet” surpasses $100 million globally, a big success for a weepy period drama on a $34 million budget.

“I think it’s not just the British audiences but audiences globally who are just really responding to the themes of the movie,” producer Pippa Harris told IndieWire of the film’s success. “It talks to universal themes about the importance of storytelling, of community, of shared experience, of getting through grief with the help of others. And I think that’s something that people are just really loving. The film clearly has some serious topics that it covers. It’s ultimately a very uplifting experience, and that’s what people are saying to us, time and again, that they’ve enjoyed the experience in the movie theater and enjoyed sharing this film with other people, strangers in a dark room.”

Harris said it’s “heartening” to see adult audiences return to theaters for a movie such as this, and anecdotally has heard of folks returning a second or third time to the theater because of their passion for the film. Her media blitz in support of its awards chances is taking her and Zhao to Spain and Poland later this month for screenings, and she, along with producer Steven Spielberg, have done wonders in championing the film and helping to foster that word of mouth.

‘Conclave’©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

For Focus Features, “Hamnet” feels like the latest example of a fall awards release it has turned into a sleeper international success. “Hamnet” is capping off a year for Focus in which it had a domestic crowdpleaser with “Song Sung Blue” ($55 million worldwide) and a more disappointing showing for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia” ($41.8 million worldwide).

A great comp for “Hamnet” is 2024’s “Conclave,” which did even more of its business internationally and topped out at $127.8 million worldwide. “Hamnet” likely won’t get to that level, but each film followed a pattern of a stateside fall release, then an UK and international rollout a month later, just as awards nominations are trickling in.

The key difference between “Hamnet” and “Conclave” is that “Conclave” opened wide from the get-go and made $6.6 million domestic before going wider. “Hamnet” started small and has stayed mostly small for its domestic run, and it’s the rare example of a movie today that has thrived in a slow burn platform release. “Hamnet” would’ve likely fallen flat if it opened in 2,000 theaters on Thanksgiving asking people to get their hankies out to come cry.

Focus instead took a tactical approach, opening on the 100 top-grossing theaters in the country that have served it well for other platform releases like “Promising Young Woman” and “The Holdovers.” It opened to just $932K from 119 screens. It held firm with around 700 theaters throughout much of December in order to slowly build word of mouth while waiting to put its foot on the gas. It’s managed to minimize the week-to-week drops as a result, and it finally went wide to around 2,000 theaters once Oscar nominations hit. Though it has now opened on PVOD, that communal theatrical element is still working in “Hamnet’s” favor, and it figures to reach in the $25-30 million range domestic through the Oscars.

Only after all that did Focus finally open the film in the UK where it would perform at its best. And even at $70 million, the film has already well outperformed expectations both domestic and abroad, to the point that the distributor feels confident in replicating this formula again for other global releases. Keep an eye on how Focus plans a similar rollout for something like Anthony Maras’ “Pressure” late this year or its “Sense and Sensibility” remake with Daisy Edgar-Jones. They could be next.