Over There: International Box Office

By Edwin Davies

January 6, 2015

Bale refuses to walk side by side with anybody dressed that ridiculous.

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Before we get down to the business of talking about this weekend's international box office, I just want to wish everyone reading this a Happy New Year, and I hope that you all had a good holiday. Truth be told, though, no matter how good the last few weeks might have been for you, they were probably better for Peter Jackson.

The Hobbit: The Battle That Just Keeps Going On dominated over the Christmas period both domestically and abroad, and the first weekend of 2015 was no different. Jackson's final (?) Tolkien adaptation earned $52.5 million this weekend, which gives it an international total of $502.1 million. That also put its global tally north of $700 million, pretty much ensuring that it will overtake Guardians of the Galaxy as the second biggest film of 2014 in the next two weeks. At its current pace, and with China on the horizon, Battle of the Five Armies should have no problem matching or exceeding the $714 million that the first Hobbit film managed back in 2012.

Second this weekend was Exodus: Gods and Kings, Ridley Scott's biblical epic that seems sort of ashamed about the fact that it's a biblical epic. It earned $31.5 million over the weekend, which gives it a running total of $142.5 million. It also crossed the $200 million mark globally, which is not exactly bad news, but isn't all that encouraging considering how expensive the film was to produce. Fox is probably kicking themselves for not dividing the story up Hobbit-style and parceling out the plagues over multiple films.

Continuing a plague of colons that is currently afflicting the box office, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb earned $26 million this week, good for third place and a total of $92.4 million. This series has always done pretty well with international audiences, with the first two installments earning $323.6 and $235.9 million, though it seems that some of that enthusiasm has dimmed with each new film. Not enough for this to be a franchise-ending disaster, but still enough to give pause to anyone tempted to continue the story with a fourth film.

Fourth this weekend is The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D, which sadly is not an even more static remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. The Chinese action film earned $23.8 million, and has so far accrued a very impressive $97.2 million.




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The Penguins of Madagascar and Big Hero 6 are pretty close this weekend, as the former earned $23 million and the latter $20.2 million, but the two could not be further apart when determining whether or not they are successful. The DreamWorks film has a total so far of $193.5 million, which has certainly done something to alleviate the sense that it was another animated catastrophe for the studio, though not by all that much considering that it never really took off at home - a real drawback when making a story about flightless birds. The Disney film, meanwhile, has a total of $167.4 million, but has only really started to expand into most markets over the last few weeks.

Seventh Son is, appropriately enough, in seventh place this weekend, as the long-delayed Jeff Bridges fantasy finally makes its way into the world. The film earned $18.6 million, which is pretty good considering that I'd started to think that it wasn't actually real and that it was just a story told to scare naughty film executives. This is a slightly reassuring sign considering that international numbers look like the only saving grace the film has at this point.

Eighth belongs to International Market, a South Korean film which would be almost impossible to Google were it not for its alternate title, Ode to my Father. The drama earned $18.3 million this weekend, and has a total to date of $55.8 million.

Paddington continued its quietly astounding run by earning $12.5 million, giving the modestly budgeted British family film a running total of $105 million. The critically-acclaimed film (it currently has a RT rating of 97%) opens in the US later this month.

Finally this week we have Taken 3, which opened in South Korea and Hong Kong a week ahead of its US bow. It earned $9.5 million from those two territories, which is a bit better than either of its predecessors managed (though bear in mind that Taken 2 was a much bigger hit internationally - $236.3 million - than Taken - $81.8 million - was), so we should expect the final part of the action saga to make some fireworks over the next couple of weeks.


     


 
 

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