Over There

International Box Office Discussion for December 5-7, 2014

By Edwin Davies

December 9, 2014

This is from Fleet of Time if you're wondering.

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Like Professor Snow's control over Panem, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 maintained a clear yet weakening grip over the international box office this weekend. The sequel was number one for the third weekend in a row with $31.6 million, which gives it a running total of $302.8 million. Since it has yet to open in Japan and China, it should hang around for a while to come.

Second this week is Fleet of Time, a Chinese coming-of-age movie that earned $29 million in its opening weekend. Hot on its heels (though not hot, because they're from the Antarctic... Look, just go with it) are the Penguins of Madagascar. They earned $23.5 million this weekend, bringing their total to $94.5 million. As I said last week, that's pretty solid, but "pretty solid" is not what DreamWorks was hoping for from a new installment from one of their more consistently popular franchises.

Exodus: Gods and Kings opened in a few territories ahead of its US debut next week, and was rewarded with $23 million for doing so. That's not a bad start, especially considering that Ridley Scott's films tend not to do huge business overseas: his three biggest hits are Prometheus, Gladiator and Robin Hood, which earned $276.9 million, $269.9 million and $216.4 million, respectively. With this start, the suspiciously white film should be guaranteed to earn at least $100 million overseas, and probably a fair bit more. I'd be surprised if it matches Scott's earlier peplum effort, though.

Interstellar is fifth this week as it continues to do exceptionally well. It earned another $22.8 million this weekend, and its overseas total is a huge $434.4 million. $119.2 million of that has come from China, which makes it the biggest 2D-only import in Chinese box office history, as well as the seventh biggest film of 2014 and the 17th highest grossing ever. That's an incredible feat in general, but an even bigger one without the benefit of 3D pricing.

Sixth place belongs to Paddington, who should be able to buy all the marmalade sandwiches with the $13 million it earned. It has $15 million after two weeks, and looks to be shaping up to be something of a minor phenomenon as far as British family films are concerned.




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John Woo, he of the great '80s action movies and the increasingly terrible '90s and '00s actions movies, makes an appearance in seventh with his latest film, The Crossing. A sweeping historical epic that was shot in 3D and split into two parts (Great work, Hollywood, now everyone is picking up your bad habits!), the film earned $8.1 million.

In eighth this week is Horrible Bosses 2. The comedy sequel earned $7.1 million, and has $23.1 million after two weeks. As has been the case in the US, foreign audiences don't seem to be that enthused by the prospect of seeing Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis commit crimes badly, though the relatively low cost might mitigate the excitement gap.

The top 10 is rounded out this week by Women Who Flirt and Big Hero 6. The Chinese comedy, which last made an appearance in this column a few weeks ago, earned $5 million and had $18 million to date. The Disney animated flick, meanwhile, continued to slowly make its presence felt, even if it isn't exactly blowing the doors off the box office in the process. It earned $4 million, which gives it $62.8 million over the course of its slow and steady rollout.

Just outside of the top 10 this week is curious case of The Pyramid. Though the horror film only received a token release in the States and was "rewarded" with a pretty tiny opening weekend of $1.35 million as a result, it fared a little better internationally, where Fox clearly expects it to make most of its money. Their strategy is clearly being borne out, since it earned $3.8 million.


     


 
 

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