Over There

International Box Office Discussion for July 25-27, 2014

By Edwin Davies

July 28, 2014

Why do I always get stuck role playing with the dude with a dragon and flaming sword?

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Though the domestic box office saw a bit of a shake-up this weekend, with not one but two medium-sized blockbusters taking advantage of a brief gap between behemoths to do better than expected, the international scene was a bit more subdued. There's a change at the top, but it's a fairly minor one, as everyone in the world seems to be waiting to see what's up with that talking raccoon movie next weekend.

Until Guardians of the Galaxy shows up to destroy everything in its path, Caesar gets one weekend to reign supreme. Dawn of The Planet of the Apes took first place with $54.4 million from 60 territories. That's a very slight decline from last week, when it earned $61 million, and despite not seeing that much of an expansion in terms of new territories. The latest installment in this revered, much-rebooted franchise now has an overseas total of $183.8 million and shows no signs of slowing down.

That means that Transformers: Age of Extinction's time as the king of the world box office has come to an end, as it falls to number two with a weekend total of $37.5 million. That's a very steep decline from last weekend, when it took in $81.2 million, and suggests that the fourth slice of robotic Bayhem is starting to run out of energy. Still, it has earned $730 million to date, passed the $300 million mark in China, and is virtually guaranteed to pass the $1 billion mark worldwide by the end of next week.

I've written a lot in these first few columns about China and its importance to Age of Extinction's success, and I think it's worth drilling down in to its current total to explain why exactly that is. Currently, it looks like Age of Extinction will surpass the overseas total of its predecessor, Dark of the Moon, which earned $771.4 million in 2011. That would suggest that the film has being an unqualified success everywhere except the US, where it's been a qualified success, or even a bit of a disappointment considering the success of the first three films.




Advertisement



But if you compare its performance in pretty much every country apart from China to that of the third Transformers film, the story looks a little different. With a few exceptions, Age of Extinction has opened lower than Dark of the Moon in most of the countries it has been released in. Even in places like the UK where it improved on Dark of the Moon's opening weekend, Age of Extinction has seen very steep drops from week to week, and will likely close with lower totals in those countries than its predecessor managed. So when we talk about what an international hit Age of Extinction has been, its worth bearing in mind that the perception of its performance has been skewed solely by its runaway success in China; pretty much everywhere else has seen the same audience erosion that has been so pronounced here in the US.

Speaking of China, the third most popular film outside of America right now is Continent, a road movie directed by a blogger, novelist and racing car driver named Han Han which earned $33 million. Your move, Earnhardt. It was followed closely by Brett Ratner's Hercules, which nearly matched its domestic debut with $28.7 million from 26 territories, and DreamWorks' How To Train Your Dragon 2, which expanded to 43 countries this week and improved from $14 million to $24 million, giving it a running total of $260.2 million. It's days away from surpassing its predecessor internationally, and has an excellent shot at earning $500 million globally.

Three international releases occupy slots six, seven and eight on the chart this week. KUNDO: Age of the Rampant, a South Korean period film, took $20 million; Chinese horror The House That Never Dies earned $8 million; and the far-weirder-than-its-name-implies comedy Tiny Times 3.0 added $7.2 million. Once again, the East Asian market demonstrates what a potentially lucrative area it could be for Hollywood with the right project.

We wrap things up this weekend with two Hollywood productions that earned almost exactly the same amount but couldn't be more different in terms of their overall performance. Godzilla is ninth with $6.95 million, bringing its international total to a frankly amazing $299 million. The reboot of the classic monster movie series has only just opened in Japan, so we should see some considerable improvement in its fortunes over the next few weeks as it creeps past the half billion mark worldwide. (In fact, total international revenue for the weekend hasn't been reported yet, but Variety says that the weekend revenue in Japan was $6.9 million on its own.) Right behind the King of the Monsters is Planes: Fire and Rescue, which earned $6.9 million from 31 territories. It currently has a less than impressive $21 million total outside of the US, not that the merchandizing geniuses at Disney will care all that much.


     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Monday, March 18, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.