Battle For $100 Million Heats Up

March 23, 2005

Not only did Hitch win the weekend race on the international circuit, but it almost closed the gap between it and Constantine for the race to $100 million. This week the romantic comedy pulled in $22.7 million on 5,000 screens in 46 markets, lifting its international box office to $98.1 million as of Sunday, and the film has almost assuredly hit $100 million after Monday and Tuesday. It's biggest box office of the weekend came from France where the film debuted in top spot with $4.4 million on 560 screens and the film also took top spot in its debut in Malaysia with $230,000 on 30 screens while just missing the trifecta with a second place, $400,000 opening in Turkey. Holdovers include first place finishes in Germany, ($3.75 million) Austria and Australia, ($1.4 million) while the film slipped to second place in its second weekend of wide release in the U.K. with $4.3 million. The only downside for the film now is the lack of major markets left to open in with Japan having to wait till July 4th. By that time the film will have crossed $300 million worldwide and may climb high enough to become one of the ten biggest hits of the year.

Robots expanded into two dozen more markets lifting the film into second place with $16.4 million in 30 markets for an early total of $20.9 million. Its best market was the U.K. where the film took top spot with $5 million, (including sneak peaks) but the film did only mediocre business in Germany, ($2.3 million) and Spain, ($1.9 million.) Overall, this film will still be a big hit, but not the monster hit we've come to expect from computer animated films.

Despite improving its weekend haul, Constantine dropped to third place with $9.3 million from 44 markets and now sits at $98.7 million. Like Hitch, this film's international box office is most likely already north of $100 million after taking into account the midweek box office. Highlighting the film's box office was a $4 million, third place opening in crowded U.K. market. (At least it was crowded at the top, the rest of the top ten was another story, but you'll have to wait till Sunday to hear more about that.) This film opened in first place in Argentina with $400,000 on 70 screens and more impressively, remained in top spot during its second weekend in Brazil with $1.1 million on 255 screens. With Russia and Japan still ahead, $200 million worldwide is the target box office.

The Ring 2 opened day-and-date in almost a dozen markets bringing in $5.2 million on 800 screens. Its biggest opening came in Mexico where the film took top spot with $2.1 million on 325 screens, but the film also did well in other, smaller markets. Markets like Turkey, ($666,000 on 111 screens) , Holland, ($430,000 on 88 screens), Greece, ($380,000 on 45), Norway, ($326,000 on 44), Sweden, ($320,000 on 48) and Portugal, ($285,000 on 46.) The film has a very busy release schedule over the next month opening in nearly every major market during that time. But even this early in its run it looks unlikely that the film will beat the $100 million earned by the original.

National Treasure ended its international run with a pair of first place finishes in Japan, ($3.7 million) and China, ($1.2 million.) That pushed its international box office to an impressive $153.9 million, and beating its domestic total of $170.6 million is not out of the question, but if I was a betting man I'd put money on it falling just short.


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Filed under: International Box Office, Hitch, National Treasure, Robots, Constantine, The Ring Two