International Box Office: Will International Numbers Get Men Into the Black?

May 30, 2012

After Men in Black 3 missed expectations domestically, its international numbers became a lot more important. I have good news and bad news. The good news is, it opened in first place with $126.31 million on 22,195 screens in 103 markets over the weekend for a total opening of $135.29 million earning first place in 101 of those markets. The bad news is, it has nowhere else to go. It's going to need to rely on strong legs to keep going. In a lot of international markets, films tends to have better legs than they have here. For instance, Japan. But the opposite is true in places like Russia and China, where pump and dumps rule. Speaking of which, the film's best single market was China where it made $20.6 million on 6,073 screens, which was just ahead of The Avengers' opening there, but that film had to deal with a massive local hit. MiB3's second biggest market was Russia, with $16.92 million on 1,549 screens, which was also more than The Avengers managed. Unfortunately, those were the only two major markets where that was true.

Other major markets include South Korea with $7.71 million on 767 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $8.76 million, while Japan was right behind with $7.23 million on 980 screens over the weekend but earned a better total opening of $8.84 million. Mexico contributed $5.32 million on 1,890 screens just ahead of Germany's $5.17 million on 722, although when you add in midweek numbers, the latter comes out ahead with $5.54 million. The film just fell short of $5 million in Australia with $4.93 million on 592 screens. That's about equivalent to its opening here. It wasn't able to dominate the market in Brazil earning $4.75 million on 645, which was only about 50% more than The Avengers made during their fifth weekend of release. The U.K. was disappointing with $4.60 million on 532 screens, which is less than The Dictator opened with in that market last weekend. The film was good, but not great in both Spain ($2.77 million on 790 screens) and in Italy ($2.61 million on 670 over the weekend for a total of $3.26 million).

By the end of business on Monday, Men in Black 3 had about $200 million worldwide. Hopefully, it will be close to matching its reported production budget of $375 million by this time next week, while it should finish somewhere between its two predecessors. With a little luck, it should break even early on its home market run, but those hoping for a fourth installment will be out of luck, unless Sony decides to make another installment just to prevent Marvel from reclaiming the movie rights.

The Avengers was finally pushed into second place, but don't feel bad for the studio. The film added $26.3 million internationally lifting its totals to $781.6 million internationally and $1.295 billion worldwide. (That's not counting Memorial Day Monday.) It is already in fourth place and it is about to overtake Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. With Japan still ahead, it might reach $1.5 billion. It depends on how eagerly Japanese audiences are willing to see the film again and again.

Dark Shadows placed third with $13.1 million on 5,100 screens in 53 markets for a total of $108.0 million. The film has made more worldwide than it cost to make, but it will still need help from the home market to break even. The film's best single market this weekend was Japan where it made $3.16 million on 572 screens for a two-week total of $12.98 million. It has yet to open in Mexico, Brazil, and some other markets, so it should stick around for a little while longer.

The Dictator fell 66% to $10.40 million on 3,057 screens in 29 markets for a total of $49.08 million. In the U.K., it plummeted 78% to just $1.69 million on 507 screens over the weekend for a total of $11.86 million after two. The film will need to make about $200 million worldwide to break even, which is possible since it has yet to open in Italy, France, Spain, Mexico, Japan, and other markets. Even if it doesn't quite get there, home market sales should be enough to push it over the top.

That's it for $10 million movies and no other film came close. Men in Black 3 really scared away the competition.


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Filed under: International Box Office, The Avengers, Dark Shadows, Men in Black 3, The Dictator