British Sweet-tooth Keeps Charlie on Top

August 10, 2005

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a reasonable drop-off during its second weekend in the U.K., which helped it maintain its first place position on the international charts with $14.36 million on more than 2,500 screens in 23 markets. In the U.K. the film fell 42% to $7.91 million for the weekend and a $34.6 million running tally, which is about 10% more than War of the Worlds's take during the same time period. There were no major opens this weekend, but it did score first place finishes in a handful of midlevel markets, Taiwan with $720,200 on 63 screens, Philippines with $330,000 on 30, and Argentina with $209,400 on 47. It is still very early in the film's run, but it has so far amassed $67.2 million internationally and $236 million worldwide and is quickly climbing the yearly charts.

Its international run could turn The Island from horrific bomb to mild disappointment adding $12.66 million on 3000 screens in 20 markets. That pushed its international box office to $42.5 million, which is more than $10 million more than its domestic total so far. Highlights for the weekend include a first place debut in Spain with $2.44 million on 469 screens and a $2.63 million, third place opening on 721 screens in Germany. Smaller market debuts include Brazil at $908,000 and Norway at $378,000. Holdovers were decidedly mixed with South Korea at the high end down just 24% to $2.3 million while in Japan the film plummeted 40% to $784,000, (which is a very high drop-off for that market.)

Good news, Herbie: Fully Loaded opened in a few major markets over the weekend propelling it into third place. Bad news, it couldn't manage a better than mediocre start in any of them resulting in just $8.5 million on 4100 screens and the worst per screen average in the top five. Its best market was France where the film opened in third place with $2.15 million on 575 screens, which could hardly be described as a good result. It was even worse in the U.K. with $1.38 million on 442 screens and in Germany with $1.29 million on 576 screens, both resulting in fifth place finishes. Herbie: Fully Loaded now has $30.9 million internationally and is closing in on $100 million worldwide.

Close behind was Madagascar, which is coasting on holdovers at the moment. Over the weekend the film added $8.2 million to its $238 million international haul, much of that coming from its fourth weekends in Germany with $3.42 million and the U.K. at $1.52 million.

Fantastic Four snagged the final place in the top five with $8 million over the weekend and $124 million internationally. Most of that came from holdovers like France, ($1.475 million) and the U.K., ($1.46 million) but the film also opened in Denmark with a strong $645,000 on 62 screens.


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Filed under: International Box Office, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Madagascar, Fantastic Four, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Island