Seems Like Fockers have Finished First Forever

March 2, 2005

Meet the Fockers maintained their hold on the international box office crown with $20.8 million on 4200 screens in 48 markets for a running tally of $184.7 million. The film opened in only one market, New Zealand, which is strange since the film has been playing in Australia since Christmas. Like Canada and the U.S., most films tend to open in Australia and New Zealand on the same day, and it looks like the delay hurt the film's box office as $524,000 on 53 screens was lower than expected. The film maintained its pole position in several larger markets including Germany, where the film dropped just 15% to $5.0 million and Austria down just 7% to $1.0 million.

Constantine again came in second this weekend with an estimated $19.5 million on 3700 screens in 25 markets push its international total to $54 million and in worldwide total above $100 million. The film debuted in first place in a few larger markets taking in $2.34 million in Australia on 289 screens, $2.1 million in Mexico on 450 screens and $1.17 million on 220 screens in Thailand. But in Italy, the largest market the film opened in, it could do no better than third place with $2.35 million on 360 screens. The film's sophomore stints in a trio of major European markets were not great, but to be expected; in Spain the film dropped 37%, which was still enough to retain top spot with $1.7 million, in France the film was down 42% to $2.1 million and in Germany the film was down 45%, also down to $2.1 million.

A number of number one debuts helped push Hide & Seek into the top five with $9.8 million on 2200 screens in 25 markets for a total of $22.5 million so far. At this pace topping its domestic total of $50 million is all but assured. It had three first place finishes in the U.K., ($3.06 million on 345 screens), Brazil, ($622,000 on 229) and Hong Kong, ($318,000 on 30.) This film also did well the South Korea, ($1.6 million on 120 screens, good enough for second place) and Taiwan, ($600,000 on 95 screens, also second place) but was weak in France with just $1.2 million on 301.

Thanks to a strong opening in France, Finding Neverland's weekend haul remained flat at $5.1 million on 1700 screens in 32 markets for a international total of $49.3 million. That is just enough to top the film's $48 million domestic total, and the film will probably have topped $100 million worldwide by the time the column is published, (although those numbers won't be known till next week.) The film is also doing very strong in Spain; this weekend is pulled in another $1.2 million to lift its total there to $4.8 million.

Finally! Ray finally had it big, breakout debut it was looking for and it happened in France. The biopic took top spot in a very crowded market earned $2.4 million there since its debut last Wednesday. Over the weekend the Oscar winner added $4.44 million from 1300 screens in 29 markets to push its international total to $25.6 million and its worldwide total to just over $100 million. Other openings included $225,000 from 25 screens in Belgium and $350,000 from 70 screens in South Korea.


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Source: Variety

Filed under: International Box Office, Meet the Fockers, Constantine, Ray, Finding Neverland, Hide and Seek