Over There: International Box Office Report for April 17-19, 2015

By Edwin Davies

April 20, 2015

Sheep directors are the hardest to work with.

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Things keep going from great to whatever is better than great for Furious 7 this week. Not only did the latest cars and capers film earn a huge amount of money yet again, it also broke one record and is well on its way to breaking another. Furious 7 earned $167.9 million this weekend, bringing its international total to a huge $858.3 million and its global one to $1.15 billion. It passed the billion mark on its 17th day of release, a record for reaching that total, and it has earned $250 million in China after eight days, pretty much guaranteeing that it will overtake Transformers: Age of Extinction as the highest grossing film in Chinese box office history.

This is all insanely good, and made even more so when you consider that the exchange rate for the dollar is pretty unfavorable at the moment. This factor alone should have held back Furious 7 when it comes to the international box office, but it is powering through this obstacle with ease. It now looks likely to earn a billion dollars from international audiences alone, which would make it only the third film to ever achieve that feat, and the first not to be directed by James Cameron. Writing about this film's achievements is, quite frankly, exhausting.

Once again, Furious 7 runs laps round the competition as second place is shared by DreamWorks' Home and the Chinese romance Ever Since We Love. Both films earned $10.4 million this weekend, which brings Home's international total to $129 million, while Ever Since We Love is only getting started.

Fourth place belongs to Cinderella, which added $7.5 million. The Disney release has now earned $271.4 million from overseas audiences, and its global total is an incredibly strong $457.7 million.




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Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 opened in a few markets alongside its US bow and was rewarded with $7.1 million. The first Paul Blart film was a pretty big hit in the US, grossing $146 million, but a much smaller deal internationally, where it only earned $37 million. The sequel might surpass that this time around, but considering that comedy as a genre doesn't do as well with international audiences, we probably won't see it become a huge hit.

Run All Night, the Liam Neeson film that you'd probably forgotten about, is sixth this weekend with $6.3 million. That brings its overseas total to $28.5 million and pushed its global total to $54.5 million. Since the film cost $50 million to produce, it will likely still end up as something of a loss for everyone involved.

Seventh this week is Insurgent, the little YA film that could, kind of. It added $4.1 million which brings its international total to $141.6 million, which continues to show that the Divergent film is growing its audience, albeit very, very gradually.

We have another tie this week for eighth as both Mr. X and Shaun the Sheep earned $3.2 million. Mr. X, an Indian sci-fi thriller, is only just getting started, but Shaun the Sheep, the feature-length adaptation of the very successful Aardman stop-motion series (itself a spinoff from the Wallace and Gromit shot A Close Shave) has so far earned $54 million. Between this and Paddington, 2015 is proving to be a great year for film versions of British oddities.

Finally this week is Why I Did (Not) Eat My Father, the French animated film that first made its presence felt last week. It added $2.2 million, bringing its total to date to a fairly flat $8.7 million.


     


 
 

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