Over There: International Box Office

By Edwin Davies

September 29, 2014

And that's where Katniss kissed Peeta for the first time!

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It’s another quiet weekend as far as the international scene is concerned, with very little new product to shake things up, leaving The Maze Runner free to dominate for another week. The frugal YA adaptation added $27.5 million this weekend, and after three weekends it has a running total of $91 million. It’s currently sitting just short of $150 million worldwide, which is a very good position for a film that cost only $34 million to make. While it’s unlikely to challenge Harry Potter, Twilight or The Hunger Games as one one of the most popular YA franchises, it certainly looks like it has a decent chance at becoming one of the more profitable in terms of rate of return (assuming, that is, that they don’t go crazy and blow the budget of the Scorch Trials on slightly better catering, or whatever corners they cut to make the so one so cheaply).

The Equalizer, probably one of the least likely projects to reunite Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua after the Oscar glory of Training Day, is sitting pretty snugly at number two this weekend, having earned $17.8 million from 65 territories. Much as he is one of the most dependable draws in the U.S., Washington has a pretty consistent international fan base that tend to give his films good, but rarely spectacular overseas results, as he’s only starred in four films that have earned more than $100 million outside of America. It doesn’t look like the Equalizer will buck that trend, but its performance so far probably means that it will easily clear $100 million worldwide, something that all but a handful of his films have done.

Third belongs to Dearest, a Chinese drama about child abduction that opened to $13.5 million from that country alone, and continues the trend we’ve seen since this column started of Chinese audiences showing up in pretty huge numbers for even fairly modest films.

“Modest” is not a term you could apply to Lucy, a film whose stylistic excesses and global success have been nothing short of gauche. The Luc Besson sci-fi extravaganza earned another $11.1 million this weekend, taking its overseas take to $269.1 million. The relatively cheap Scarlett Johansson vehicle is now sitting on a worldwide total of $394.5 million, making it Besson’s biggest hit by some considerable margin (it has even leapfrogged Taken 2’s total of $376.1) and is the most successful film of Johansson’s career not to involve the word “Marvel” in some capacity.




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We’ve a potentially horrifying crossover in fifth as The Boxtrolls and Sex Tape both earned $5.1 million. All of Laika’s previous films have been fairly modest hits internationally – Corpse Bride remains the most successful to date, having earned $63.8 million back in 2005 – and with $17.7 million after a few weeks, Box Trolls look like it will follow in that tradition. Sex Tape, meanwhile, has earned $78.6 million.

Seventh and eighth place on the chart are occupied by a couple of films that have been inextricably linked for months now, ever since they took turns reigning over the US box office. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy earned $4 million, bringing its running total to $325.1 million, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles earned $3.9 million and has $154.9 million to date. The big story about both films is the continued wait to see how they do as they hit some of the bigger markets, with the biggest question mark over Guardians being whether or not China will give it enough of a boost to overtake Captain America: The Winter Soldier as Marvel’s biggest worldwide hit of 2014. Star Lord currently trails Steve Rogers by just under $70 million, as the former has $644.3 million and the latter $714.1 million.

Finally this week we have one film which crossed a big milestone and one that is inching closer to another. Into The Storm added $3.4 million, giving it an international total of $105.6 million and pushing its worldwide total over $150 million. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, meanwhile, earned $3.3 million this weekend, which takes its international total to $488.2 million and puts it days away from a worldwide tally of $700 million, making it only the sixth film of 2014 (so far) to reach that figure.


     


 
 

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