How xXx: Return Of Xander Cage conquered the global box office

Vin Diesel’s action sequel has opened at number one around the globe and earned more than £56million worldwide in its first weekend. So how did it do it?

A truly global cast

Back in 2012, MPAA figures showed that 70% of Hollywood box office came from overseas. Initially, no-one was sure what to do with that information. But increasingly, moviemakers began to realise that diversity is not a dirty word for audiences. If you want to pull in more interest in China, cast a Chinese star. Same for India, or South Korea.

‘Iron Man 3’ even shot special footage that showed in a Chinese version of the movie, most of which was cut out of the domestic feature.

The cast of the new ‘xXx’ includes lead actors from dozens of countries including America, England, India, Korea, Singapore, Scotland, China, Australia, Thailand, Canada, Brazil and Colombia.

Several are comparative newcomers like young English actress Hermione Corfield (pictured above). Others, like Thai actor Tony Jaa (‘The Raid’) and Donnie Yen (‘Rogue One’) are megastars in their own countries with long and illustrious careers as recognised action heroes. Their influence is huge. When Yen (pictured below) played a Wing Chun expert in 2008’s ‘Ip Man’, it started a wave of new Wing Chun schools being opened across Asia.

Then there’s Chinese-Canadian Kris Wu (pictured below), making his English-language debut in ‘Xander Cage’ having sold millions of records as a pop star in China and South Korea. His appeal amongst a young Asian audience can’t be underestimated. He had one of the fastest songs to reach 1 million streams, has been an ambassador for huge brands like Mercedes and Huawei and has 4.8million followers on Instagram.

And to truly show off the movie’s transnationalism, it features 31-year-old Indian multi-hyphenate Deepika Padukone (pictured below) – one of the highest-paid actresses in the world and a woman so recognised in that country (as well as any which idolise Bollywood) that she can’t walk down the street. Not only is she a blockbuster actress, she’s also an outspoken feminist, journalist and philanthropist. With one social media message, she has the kind of reach on the Indian sub-continent that would take a film company millions to muster through normal promo.

It’s been happening behind the scenes in marketing for a while, but film companies – in this case Paramount – are finally acknowledging that box office success also means reflecting their global audience on the screen itself.

‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ did it brilliantly with Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen (again). Not only are they magnetic screen presences who make the Star Wars universe feel more like the multicultural world we live in, they also contribute heavily to the film’s £802m (and counting) box office take.

Vin Diesel knows first-hand how effective it can be. His ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise has done it brilliantly over the last three films. The cast of ‘Furious 7’ included Israeli Gal Gadot (who has gone on to become a superhero in ‘Wonder Woman’ and is pictured below), Michelle Rodriguez who is of Hispanic heritage, Aussie Iggy Azalea, Tony Jaa and Djimon Hounsou. The results were stark – 75% of ‘Furious 7’’s audience was non-white and they helped it not only to earn £279m in the US, but to score a further staggering £921m from international markets.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’ cleaned up at the global box office.

Kick-ass female characters

“The good, the extreme and the completely insane!”

That’s how Xander Cage describes his new team and what’s particularly great about his expert gang this time around is that it’s filled with amazing women.

Adele Wolff (played by ‘Orange is the New Black’ star Ruby Rose - pictured above) is a quip-ready sharpshooter. Toni Collette is the no-nonsense CIA chief who brings Xander back from the dead. Meanwhile, Nina Dobrev (‘The Vampire Diaries’) is a geeky weapons expert and Indian star Deepika Padukone is an intelligent, sultry and dangerous operative.

As audiences, we’re used to action films being dominated by testosterone – ‘Return of Xander Cage’ makes for a refreshing change by putting strong women front and centre. It’s a smart move, both from a narrative perspective and from a financial one. Global audiences have finally come round to the idea of watching a blockbuster movie with women at the heart.

The ‘Resident Evil’ franchise, now on its sixth and final instalment, began with Milla Jovovich kicking butt back in 2002 and has made over £700million on comparatively small budgets.

The ‘Ocean’s’ series is currently filming a star-studded female-centric edition, with Oscar-winning stars like Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. It’s pretty much a guaranteed smash.

Those who say Hollywood continue to ignore female-driven casts at their peril also point to the ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies, or even Charlize Theron – clearly the most interesting and badass component of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ – whose uncompromising character helped the reboot reach £300m across the globe.

And then there’s the in-development ‘Expendabelles’ an ‘Expendables’ spin-off that has yet to be cast.

For narrow-minded filmmakers, putting a bunch of kick-ass women at the centre of story is still considered a risky move. The success of ‘Return of Xander Cage’ should help to excise that outdated notion.

Never underestimate Diesel power

Filmmakers realised that in order to resurrect the ‘xXx’ franchise – the second movie, starring Ice Cube, came out in 2005 – they needed Diesel back. By August 2015, the star had posted on his Instagram feed, “While I was filming ‘xXx’, guys on set called me Air Diesel… The time to return has come.”

A very modern action hero, Vin knows what audiences want and is brilliant at working the publicity machine. Mashable described his secret back in 2009 as “authenticity” and he recently told Forbes, “Everything that I do on Facebook, I did as a kid on the subway.”

He’s got over 100 million likes on Facebook and boasts more than 31m Instagram followers, galvanising his social media presence to buy tickets by letting them see glimpses of the real him on their smartphones. He posted constant video updates from the set of ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’ – from jokey hangouts with his co-stars, to cooing over stunts-in-progress with his director DJ Caruso.

Plus he looks great in a singlet. In fact, he rarely wears anything else.

Unbelievable stunts

Anyone who’s witnessed the kind of screen acrobatics Tony Jaa is capable of will know what they can expect from ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’. And Donnie Yen is widely considered one of the greatest martial artists ever to appear on film.

But what the filmmakers were also clever about was bringing in UFC bruisers like Michael Bisping (currently the UFC middleweight champion) to ramp up the fighting scenes.

They also realised that the set pieces need to be spectacular – which is why audiences get to watch characters jumping out of planes without parachutes, Xander skiing through a snowless jungle, weightless gunfights and guys surfing on motorbikes.

The rise of Bourne and the new Bond have meant that action choreographers are very focused on grounding their stunts in reality (up to a point). The bombastic nature of what you get in ‘xXx’ is clearly a welcome counterpoint to that dourness for audiences, who are keen to revel in the OTT spectacle on offer.

‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’ is in cinemas now.