International Tourists Flock to the Island

August 17, 2005

There are a lot of people at Dreamworks breathing a sigh of relief over this weeks international box office numbers. The Island, which was a huge bomb domestically, lead the international box office race with $13.9 million on 4200 screens in 33 markets. That's not a great result, but will probably save someone his or her job. Among its dozen or so debuts were second place finishes in the U.K. with $2.6 million on 413 screens, as well as a first place finish in Mexico with $1.91 million on 500 screens. Other openings include $1.2 million on 241 screens in Russia, $434,500 on 86 screens in the Netherlands, and $198,000 on 50 screens in Argentina. While holdovers were less impressive down 40% in Germany to $1.66 million, 55% in Spain to $1.13 million, and 55% in Australia to $435,000. Overall The Island has brought in $63 million internationally, almost a third of which came from South Korea at $19 million, including another $1 million this weekend.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory slipped to second in a very close race with $13.6 million on more than 3500 screens in 30 markets. The largest single chunk of that came from the U.K. where the film added $4.96 million to its $45.5 million running tally, which is half of the film's $91 million international box office. The film was also first in its debut in Hong Kong with $643,600 on 41 screens and in Turkey with $211,000 on 79, nearly half the market's total box office for the weekend. On the other hand, it opened in two major European markets with less than stellar results. In Spain Charlie and the Chocolate Factory managed just $1.48 million on 308 screens while in Germany it finished the weekend with $1.6 million on 484 screens, barely enough for fourth place.

Madagascar opened in second place in Japan with $2.7 million, just behind the $2.8 million earned by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith during its sixth weekend of release. Other million dollar markets included $1.7 million from Germany and $1.2 million from the U.K., which lifted the film's international box office past $250 million to $252 million, well ahead of its domestic total.

Herbie: Fully Loaded had a full tank of gas during its second weekend in the U.K. slipping by a mere 13% to $1.2 million on 442 screens. On the other hand, it fell 40% in France, but that was still the largest single market adding $1.4 million to its $5.8 million weekend box office. That was enough to push its worldwide total past $100 million to $105.1 million, $41.1 million of which has come from the international scene.

Strong openings in both Spain ($1.7 million on 305 screens) and Germany ($2.5 million on 350) helped propel Sin City into the top five with $5.1 million over the weekend for an international box office of $58.3 million so far. Also contributing to its overall haul was a first place, $505,000 opening on 70 screens in Austria and a second place, $200,000 opening on 40 screens in New Zealand. There are two opposing forces at work here; comic book movies tends to suffer internationally, but R-Rated films tend to do better than they do domestically. These two forces seem to be evenly balanced and that should lead to a international box office very close to the $74 million it earned domestically.


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