International Top Five - Mutants Make Their Move

June 21, 2006

Openings in South Korea and Taiwan helped X-Men: The Last Stand climb into first place on the international charts with $14.64 million on 6271 screens in 57 markets for an international total of $180.81 million. (Which, like last week's international total, is another palindrome. What are the odds of that?) The film earned $5.9 million on 353 in South Korea and $1.4 million on 166 screens in Taiwan, finishing first in both markets. However, they were not the only results of note this week as the film dipped just 16% to $1.37 million on 459 screens over the weekend for a total of $32.16 million in total. At this point, even if the film didn't have any additional openings left, it would still cross the $200 million mark before its run was over. As it is, it has yet to open in both China and Japan and could earn more internationally than it did stateside.

Studio estimates had The Da Vinci Code just a fraction ahead of X-Men: The Last Stand. But in the end it had to settle for second place ending its four-week run on top of the international charts. However, it still added $14.25 million on 7659 screens in 61 markets for an international total of $479.12 million and should have enough left to reach $500 million shortly. The film is now 13th place internationally and 24th Worldwide. The film's best weekend of the weekend, and indeed its international run, was Japan where it added $3.24 million on 696 screens to its $62.42 million running total.

Any hope The Omen's international run would compensate for its poor showing domestically died this past weekend as it plummeted 52% to $8.94 million on 4594 screens in 64 markets for a total of just $47.61 million so far. Granted, the film is going to top its domestic total soon, but that's hardly a selling point considering how poorly it did here. The film only had one number one finish this weekend and that was in Mexico where it fell 54% to $1.02 million on 560 screens for a two-week total of $6.03 million. It held up better in the U.K. where it was down just 38% to $1.07 million on 350 screens, but it was helped because the U.K. didn't play a game in the World Cup over the weekend.

Poseidon was just a fraction behind with $8.76 million on 3817 screens in 39 markets for a total of $68.33 million internationally, which is more than it earned domestically. Over the weekend the film earned 13 first place openings out of 14 new markets. Unfortunately, most of these markets were of the smaller variety, for example, Argentina with $350,000 on 75 screens. Its only new major market of the weekend was France where it had to settle for second place with $1.5 million 583 screens.

Rounding out the top five, just like it did last weekend, was Cars with $8.03 million on 1802 screens in 12 markets for a total of $15.41 million. Culturally, the film is more American than other Pixar films; most other places are not obsessed with cars as Americans are, and NASCAR has very little drawing power outside the United States. And even within the United States, it is very regional. France is a perfect example of this as the film opened in first place, but earned just $2.8 million on 700 screens. This represents a 30% market share and nearly double its nearest competitor, but is just a fraction of the $12.13 million Finding Nemo opened with back in 2003. On the plus side, the cost of digital animation has dropped considerably, and Cars will have no problem showing a healthy profit.


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Filed under: International Box Office, Cars, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Da Vinci Code, Poseidon, The Omen