Over There

International Box Office Discussion for July 18-20, 2014

By Edwin Davies

July 21, 2014

Bumblebee calls his shot.

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With the World Cup out of the way, we see a bit of change at the international box office this week as Dawn of the Planets of the Apes expanded to 51 territories from 27 last week, and was rewarded with a bigger gross as a result. Was it enough to unseat Transformers: Age of Extinction? Not quite.

Michael Bay's Autobots continue to bludgeon audiences into submission, and even though it's faltering domestically (this weekend it made about $10 million in the U.S.) it continues to be the number one choice as far as overseas audiences are concerned. It added $81.2 million from 59 territories, bringing its current international total to $659.1 million, $285.7 million of which has come from China alone. In a few weeks, it'll join the not-as-exclusive-as-it-used-to-be Billion Dollar Club, as well as the extremely exclusive Billion Dollar Despite Grossing Less Than $300 million In The U.S. Club. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was getting awful lonely.

The number two film was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which saw a huge uptick from last week's total of $31.1 million, bringing in an estimated $61 million. It's tracking way ahead of its predecessor so far, in some cases doubling its opening weekend (South Korea) and in others almost equalling Rise of the Planet of the Apes' final total after just a few weeks (Malaysia and, of course, North America). With an international total of $103 million so far, the Matt Reeves blockbuster should continue to see big numbers for weeks to come.

Third goes to a Chinese film named Tiny Times 3.0, which is the third installment in a hugely popular series of films aimed at teens. Its popularity was reaffirmed as it took $30 million from China alone. If that performance alone isn't interesting enough, bear in mind that it's a film that features, to quote Variety, "Doppelgängers, long-lost brothers and incestuous gay cousins." Don't let anyone tell you that a film is "too weird" to be a hit somewhere. It's followed in fourth by another Chinese film, this one a 3D thriller named The House That Never Dies, which managed a comparatively paltry $21 million. The film is about a legendary haunted house, but apparently not enough of those ghosts were partaking in incest to really draw the big crowds.




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DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon 2 continues to do solid business overseas, taking $14 million. With a running total of $225.5 million Toothless and co. are closing in on the final total of their first film, which pulled in $277.3 million back in 2010. It looks likely to surpass that, and probably cross $300 million before all is said and done, which should make up some of the ground it has lost in America.

A full three weeks ahead of its U.S. debut, the 3D dance movie Step Up All In opened in 27 territories and took in $10.3 million. The Step Up series has seen its domestic fortunes fall considerably over the years, with 2012's Step Up Revolution scoring a series low of $35.1 million. Why does a fifth film in this danchise exist? Because Revolution also grossed $105.4 million outside of the U.S. against an outlay of $33 million. No wonder international audiences are getting to see the latest film first.

Planes: Fire and Rescue's international debut was as modest as its domestic one, as it took $9 million from 25 territories. Considering the Planes films are little more than Direct-to-Video adventures designed to sell toys, this is a fair result. It might struggle to match the first Planes' overseas total of $129.5 million, but I doubt anyone at Disney is losing sleep over this one. Nor will they be losing any over Maleficent, which added $8 million for a ninth place finish and a superb running total of $468.8 million. They might actually be gaining sleep from that, since the film that no one was really talking about before the summer is continuing to prove that, hey, films about women do well at the box office too. It'll have over $700 million globally by the end of this week.

Finally in tenth this week is Adam Sandler's Blended, a film which most of you have probably forgotten about already. It took $6.7 million this weekend and has a running total internationally of $59 million. The most notable thing about this result - because, again, this is a really forgettable film - is that it's only the fourth Adam Sandler vehicle to gross more internationally than domestically (the others being Hotel Transylvania, Just Go With It and Jack and Jill). It's still one of his lowest grossing films internationally as well as domestically, but it's interesting that foreign audiences have not lost interest in Sandler to quite the same extent that the North America audience has.


     


 
 

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