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The growth of the Chinese box office has been a recurring theme of this summer, one that has become louder and more pronounced since Transformers: Age of Extinction's opening there made everyone forget how middling its numbers in the US were. That's the case again this week, as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened to a massive $47 million in China this weekend. That's the fourth best opening for a non-Chinese film in Chinese box office history (it's sitting behind a couple of Transformers films and Iron Man 3) and ensures that the Matt Reeves-directed sequel will continue to rack up more and more impressive figures. It also took in $4.2 million from all other territories, and has a running tally to date of $408.1 million. It could likely clear the half a billion mark within a few weeks.

In second place this week is last week's champion, Lucy, which added $31.2 million and now has $151.6 million in international sales. A reminder: the film cost only $40 million to make. In the process, it overtook The Fifth Element to become Luc Besson's biggest global hit (unadjusted for inflation) with $269.4 to the older film's $263.9 million. It's still going to be a few weeks before it overtakes Leeloo Dallas Mutipass: The Movie's overseas take of $200.1 million, but that seems like a fait accompli at this stage.

Guardians of the Galaxy overtook Captain America: The Winter Soldier to become the biggest film of the year domestically, but it still has a way to go if it is ever going to beat its overseas take. It added $19.7 million this weekend, $7 million of which came from opening in Germany, and it has an overseas total so far of $273.1 million, somewhat behind that of its brother from another Marvel franchise, which earned $454.3 million. GOTG is followed by the equally easily acronymed TMNT, which took $13 million and has a running tally of $112.1 million. Since it hasn't hit most major markets, the heroes in a half shell are the box office equivalent of a powder keg, one which should blow up in a big way in the next few weeks.

Into the Storm, or ITS as absolutely no one is calling it, rounds out the Top 5 with $12.9 million. The little disaster movie that couldn't (at least in America) has earned $47.7 million from foreign audiences to date, and while it's far from a smash, it is turning into steady little earner. It stands in stark contrast to the runaway success of How to Train Your Dragon 2, which has calmed down after its huge Chinese debut a few weeks ago, but still managed $10.5 million and $420.2 million overall.

Now we're into the Sad Action Men part of the chart, as Hercules and The Expendables (hmm, I've just had an idea for the least necessary crossover in action movie history!) sit rather forlornly at numbers 7 and 8. The demigod played by a demigod is currently doing better, as he earned $9.8 million and has accrued $103.8 million since opening a few weeks ago, but Stallone and co. are catching up since they managed to bring in $8.8 million and have $59 million over the last three weeks. I'd expect The Expendables 3 to eventually overtake Hercules since the former has a lot more room for expansion while the latter has already peaked at this point, but these are still fairly middling numbers for two very pricey star vehicles.

Let's Be Cops, the comedy that no one expected to do particularly well in America, is starting its overseas campaign and managed to crack the top 10 with $6.6 million. The film has already been wildly successful in the US, making this is the rare example of a Hollywood film whose overseas box office is something of an afterthought. That's probably a good thing, since unless New Girl is surprisingly huge in Japan, I can't imagine that a very American-centric comedy with two relatively unknown actors will draw big crowds internationally. Meanwhile The Pirates likely makes its last appearance in the Top 10 this week, as the South Korean period piece added $5.5 million for a very solid total of $53 million.