Over There: International Box Office

By Edwin Davies

November 3, 2014

Welcome to the Kung Fu Jungle, baby. You're gonna diiiiiiiiie!

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Following their expected strong opening in China, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stand astride the box office, having pulled in a cool $34.7 million this weekend. That brings its overseas total to $244 million, which I think is probably the uppermost limit of what I expected the film to earn globally back when it was announced. That it looks likely to finish with close to $500 million is surprising, to say the least.

Speaking of films whose success has been surprising, The Maze Runner also debuted in China and, largely as a result of that, is second this weekend. The modestly budgeted YA film earned $23.8 million, and in doing so brought its international total to $209.5 million, and its worldwide total to $306.5 million. Not bad at all for a film that cost $34 million.

Less surprising is the continued success of Gone Girl. The phenomenally successful David Fincher film kept on being phenomenally successful by adding $15.3 million, and it has now earned $142.9 million from international audiences.

Fury, the Brad Pitt war movie that got a lot of attention when it opened in America but no one seems to be talking about anymore, is starting to expand into other territories and is bearing out just how big of a draw Brad Pitt is overseas. Fury earned $14.6 million this weekend, and has $37.8 million so far. At this rate, it looks likely to outperform fellow 2014 WWII film The Monuments Men, which earned $76.9 million internationally.

Two horror films, or at least horror-inflected films, sit at fifth and sixth place over the Halloween weekend. Annabelle earned $13.5 million, bringing its overseas tally to an excellent $149 million, while Dracula Untold continued to draw blood from foreign audiences to the tune of $12.4 million. The not-quite-a-failure-but-not-quite-a-success has taken $136.1 million to date.

The brilliantly named Kung Fu Jungle is the seventh most popular film outside of America this week. The Chinese action film about a kung fu master recruited to catch a killer earned $9.3 million and instantly jumped to the upper echelons of my "must see" list.




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Two exciting movies with dull names are tied for eighth and ninth place this week. John Wick, the Keanu Reeves comeback vehicle with surprisingly great reviews, earned $6.6 million and has $8 million so far. Keanu has a pretty good track record when it comes to drawing international audiences - 47 Ronin, which was a huge domestic flop last year, took in $112.6 million internationally - but the lack of big special effects will probably limit John Wick's appeal. Still, considering it only cost $5.5 million to produce, $6.6 million is pretty impressive.

Lucy also earned $6.6 million this weekend, which brings its running total to $317 million. Once again, it's becoming increasingly difficult to emphasize just how amazingly well the film has done.

The Book of Life rounds out the chart this week. The Day of the Dead-inspired animated feature earned $6.1 million over the actual Day of the Dead, and so far has a very modest $29.4 million. It hasn't set the world on fire, but it's continuing to do pretty well considering that it doesn't have the benefit of being released by one of the real animation powerhouses like Disney or DreamWorks. Within those boundaries, The Book of Life is doing just fine.


     


 
 

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