No, we are saying that they hyped it enough to get back their investment, but it will never be a blockbuster, although it was hyped like it ought to be, because after the hype is over, it's not really a well-made action-adventure-suspense movie. If it wasn't controversial, it would have flopped its first weekend, because not enough people enjoyed it enough to go back for seconds, and not enough people told their friends go see it.
That record isn't so impressive as it sounds; That's rare. Usually a domestic movie will open in the U.S. first, then a few Anglosphere countries, then, according to timing issues set by competition and local merketing issues such as holiday timings, several more nations per week. There is a trend, however, to roll "big-event" movies out faster and faster.
The DVC's makers apparently knew it was going to globally horrific reviews, so released in every market simultaneously, and even held off pre=screenings until the very last moment.
Nonetheless, the title plainly stated that the movie did have a big [domestic] opening.
Contary to the "ITS ONLY FICTION!!!" screamers, I don't think anyone figured on preventing the movie from being profitable. At least in the U.S., the point of all the anti-DVC information was simply to counter the movies' lies. The fact that the movie is sucking so badly will, however, hopefully, result in people seeing through its lies more easily; people tend to believe to internalize what they are told, even if they recognize it to be fiction intellectually, if it makes them feel good. Leaving a theater saying, "what a steaming heap of cr@p" hardly makes one remember the subversive teachings.
No-one was trying to argue that the opening-day take wasn't impressive. The huge drop-off was an indication of audience disgust; the drop off would have been easily over 60% if not for the long weekend, which essentially turned Sunday into a Saturday for box-office takes.
But I certainly do learn from the feedback; if people take the column as declaring "ha! See, the movie lost money!" I clearly have to emphasize why the drop-off IS significant, since that ain't the reason it is.