International Box Office: Number One Film is a Real Mystery

October 6, 2010

Resident Evil: Afterlife was in a close race for top spot on the international chart, but lost out to Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame, a Chinese film. That film opened with $16.42 million on 650 screens in 4 markets over the weekend for a total opening on $17.63 million. Most of this likely came from its native market, unfortunately, China is not a market that releases box office number in anything close to a timely fashion, so exact numbers there will likely remain a mystery for a while.

Resident Evil: Afterlife was very close behind with $16.17 million on 5087 screens in 54 markets for a total of $182.63 million internationally and $239.24 million worldwide. It is already the biggest hit in the franchise; in fact, it has made as much as the first two films combined. There were no new openings for the film this past weekend, but it did earn $3.06 million on 607 screens over the weekend in Japan for a total of $46.29 million. In comparison, it has made $56.62 million here. It still has a ways to go, but Afterlife could end its run in Japan with more money than it earned here and it is very, very rare for a Hollywood film to do this.

Eat Pray Love continues to expand, but it slipped to third place with $13.52 million on 3439 screens in 31 markets for a total of $39.71 million. It opened in first place in Brazil with $2.08 million on 241 screens making it the fasted opening film there in Julia Roberts' career. It also held on well in Germany down just 23% to $2.06 million on 514 screens over the weekend for a total of $6.38 million after two.

Endhiran: The Robot became the latest Indian film to chart, opening in fourth place with $12.91 million on 1778 screens in 14 markets. This is even more impressive, as it is a Tamil-language film and not a Hindi-language film, so this level of success is almost unheard of.

Despicable Me opened in first place in Germany with $5.52 million on 687 screens, which was better than Shrek Forever After managed during its opening. Overall it made $12.45 million on 2437 screens in 31 markets for the weekend for a total of $115.11 million internationally and $361.20 million worldwide. Unless it cost an absolutely unreasonable amount to make, it is already showing a profit, plus it has a number of major markets still ahead of it.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps slipped a spot to sixth with $10.83 million on 3000 screens in 55 markets for a total of $23.25 million. It opened in second place in France with $2.11 million on 410, but it could do no better than fourth place in Russia with $1.01 million on 223.

Anjaana Anjaani was the second Indian film on this week's chart opening in seventh place with $9.87 million on 1643 screens in 17 markets.

Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole entered the chart in eighth place with $8.99 million on 2628 screens over the weekend for an early total of $11.29 million. It did okay in Australia opening with $1.32 million on 347 screens, which was enough second place. On the other hand, it bombed in Japan with a mere $550,000 on 421 screens over the weekend and $739,000 in total.

Inception fell to ninth place with $8.74 million on 3701 screens in 53 markets over the weekend, but since last week, it pushed its international total over the $500 million mark. It now has $513.03 million internationally and $801.44 worldwide. It became the 26th film to reach $800 million worldwide, and even with no new openings ahead, it should still have the legs to climb a few more spots on the all-time chart.

Umizaru 3: The Last Message rounded out the top ten with $7.01 million on 467 screens over the weekend for a total of $56.17 million after three weeks of release, all of which was earned in its native market of Japan.


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Filed under: International Box Office, Inception, Despicable Me, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Eat Pray Love