International Details - Number Two for Alvin and the Chipmunks
January 3, 2010
Our report on Avatar's international weekend can be found here.
Due to the holidays, a lot of studios didn't release exact international numbers for the past weekend, leaving us to deal with estimates for only a few titles.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel opened in second place with $36.5 million on 5,492 screens in 42 markets, finishing in second place to Avatar in about half of them.
It did top the chart in the U.K. with $8.56 million on 478 screens, but that includes previews.
It opened in second place in Spain with $3.24 million on 352 screens and in Mexico with $2.42 million on 768 screens.
Meanwhile, it had to settle for third place in Australia and Germany earning $2.94 million on 363 screens and $2.81 million on 612 screens respectively.
The film has opened in most major markets, so it appears it has no real shot at topping its domestic run on the international scene.
Then again, neither did the original.
Sherlock Holmes opened in third place with $26 million on 2,454 screens in 17 markets.
This includes a few major markets, including Italy where it made $6.53 million on 394 screens, which is huge for that market.
However, since there were two local hits doing even better business, it had to settle for third place.
It also placed third in the U.K. with $4.93 million on 476 screens and in South Korea with $3.71 million on 409 screens over the weekend and $4.99 million in total.
It did come second in Australia with $3.41 million on 308 screens.
It is important to note that in the U.K. and Australia the film opened on Boxing Day, meaning it only had two days in theaters this past weekend.
The only other release of note was 3 Idiots, as the Bollywood production broke records.
It opened with $19.3 million on 2,007 screens for a total of more than $20 million worldwide.
Most Indian films don't make that much in total, so to earn that much during its opening weekend is outstanding.
Things should return to normal on the international front this week, and we expect to publish the international top five on Wednesday.
Filed under: International Box Office, Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel