Passions Rise Internationally

March 23, 2004

The Passion of the Christ had mixed openings during its fourth weekend in international release. In Latin America is performed very well, where it made two thirds of its $15 million weekend take, breaking records in Chile and Central America along the way. On the flip side it could only manage a paltry $2.3 million in Germany, half of first place Brother Bear and on par with Gothika's opening earlier in the year. It would have been more impressive if the situation was reversed. After all, record breaking performances throughout Latin American won't earn as much as a blockbuster performance in Germany. Overall Passions has pulled in $32.3 million in 19, mostly smaller markets.

As I've already mentioned, Brother Bear took first place in Germany with $4.7 million. With the help of that win the film was able to take second place on the international market with $10.1 million. It was also enough to push Brother Bear past $200 million worldwide.

A strong U.K. opening for Starsky and Hutch helped it into third place this week. Including previews, the adaptation of 1970s cop show made $8.2 million there, more than 90% of its $8.9 million weekly total. It's still too early in its release to tell if Starsky and Hutch will connect with international markets, especially outside English speaking regions.

Along Came Polly was in a virtual tie taking in just shy of $8.9 million. It also pushed its international gross to $53 million with more than two dozen markets left to open in.

Rounding out the top five was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King with $7.5 million. With no more openings in its future, the 11 time Oscar winner has probably spent it's last weekend in the top five. And there's very little in the way of milestones left for it to cross. It did cross $700 million internationally early this week, landing at $708.9 million and $1.08 billion worldwide.


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Source: Variety

Filed under: International Box Office, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Passion of the Christ, Starsky & Hutch, Brother Bear, Gothika, Along Came Polly