Over There: International Box Office

By Edwin Davies

September 22, 2014

We call it Whylight.

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There's new blood in the international top 10 this week, though it's surrounded by blood that's so old it's practically coagulating. Our top film is one I mentioned briefly last week as one to look out for, The Maze Runner. The adaptation of the apparently popular YA series opened in a few markets last weekend and earned a decent $8.3 million, but it expanded considerably this week and was rewarded with a take of $37.6 million. It has earned $49 million outside of America after just two weeks and has yet to hit most major markets, so an overseas total north of $150 million is assured at this point. That's an exceptional beginning for the $34 million franchise starter.

Lucy continues to do very well in second place, scoring $13 million and bringing its overseas total to $253 million. It's hard to tell whether it will have enough momentum to reach $300 million, though that could very well change if the film opens in China (it's currently unclear if that is on the cards). However, it should manage to push its global total above $400 million, or 10 times what it cost to make, in the next couple of weeks (its current total is $377.8 million, which is nuts). It is officially a good year to be Luc Besson, assuming you forget that Brick Mansions and 3 Days to Kill ever happened. In all likelihood, you probably had already.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened in Japan this weekend but, in stark contrast to pretty much everywhere else, it opened to a lower figure than its predecessor managed ($3.7 million vs. $5 million). It says a lot about how spectacularly well the film has done that this registers as a pretty minor disappointment, if it registers at all. It added $8.15 million in total this weekend, and has $476.4 million to date.

Sex Tape continues to do better with foreign audiences than you would expect, given, you know, everything about it. It took $7.6 million this weekend (and it really does feel like it's taking money from people at this point, rather than earning it) and has amassed a face-saving $70.5 million. It narrowly beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which lands at number five with $7.3 million, leaving it at $148.3 million.




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A blast from the past sits at number six this week as Non-Stop, the Liam Neeson action film that was released in most territories back in the spring, but has only just opened in China, makes a belated return to box office prominence. It earned $7 million this weekend, pushing its international total to $95 million.

Seventh place belongs to One Step Away, a Chinese spy romance that earned $6 million in its first weekend, and which, despite what Google might tell you, nothing to do with a Canadian movie from the 1980s that features a very young Keanu Reeves, or the pop group of the same name.

Into The Storm squeaked over the $100 million mark internationally this weekend as it earned $5.7 million. The disaster movie has done solid business overseas - its total of $100.4 million is more than double the $46 million it earned stateside - and suggests that overseas audiences haven't tired of found footage or disaster movies to quite the extent that Americans have, or that the language barrier means that they don't have to care about the horrible dialogue.

Hercules and Guardians of the Galaxy (a crossover that Disney really should consider) round out the top ten this week as both earned $5.2 million. Hercules now has $146.9 million, which is very respectable for a film that needed to connect with foreign audiences to see any return on its $100 million production budget, while Guardians has $318.6 million, which is more than respectable, it's downright impressive. I imagine that Kevin Feige is already looking into installing another solid gold toilet in his platinum house as I type.


     


 
 

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