Over There:
International Box Office Report for May 1-3, 2015

By Edwin Davies

May 4, 2015

Mark Ruffalo or Chris Sarandon in Fright Night?

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Summer is definitely upon us, as Avengers: Age of Ultron continues to tear up the box office like the Hulk through any built up area. In its second week, the Joss Whedon-directed sequel to one of the most successful films of all time earned $168 million internationally, for a new overseas total of $439 million, or almost half of the $895 million that the first Avengers earned back in 2012. Combined with its huge US debut, the 11th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has now earned $626 million after less than two weeks in theaters, so we can be pretty certain that it will pass the $1 billion mark soon, possibly as early as next week. With China looming on the horizon, Age of Ultron should have no problem reaching that, or becoming the fourth film to earn a billion dollars outside of the US.

(Fun fact: if Age of Ultron does pass one billion, which is pretty much guaranteed at this point Joss Whedon will become only the fifth person to direct two films that earned more than a billion worldwide, after James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan and Michael Bay. Not something I personally would have predicted back when Dollhouse was struggling in the ratings.)

Furious 7 is second, but despite being overshadowed by the Avengers, it still managed a respectable haul. The James Wan heist film earned $52.8 million, bringing its international total to a huge $1.1 billion internationally and $1.43 billion globally. It should overtake the original Avengers' total of $1.51 billion in the next two or three weeks to become the third most successful film of all time (assuming that the second Avengers doesn't overtake it before then).

In third this week is Silent Separation, a film adaptation of a popular Chinese novel that has also inspired a hugely popular television series called My Sunshine. Confusingly, the film and TV versions have entirely separate casts, so Chinese audiences are getting a jump start on Americans who will have to contend with two separate versions of The Flash in a few years. The film version earned $28 million this weekend.




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Home is fourth as the DreamWorks feature continues to do fairly well with international audiences. It earned $17 million this weekend, bringing its international tally to $170.1 million, and its global total to $328.2 million.

Fifth is Helios, a Hong Kong action thriller about criminals who steal uranium and plan to sell it to terrorist organizations. The film earned $16.9 million, and a future place on my Netflix queue, bringing its global total to $22 million.

The Left Ear, the Chinese drama which first made an appearance on the chart last weekend, added $15.5 million, good for sixth place and a sizable running total of $62 million.

Cinderella continues to hang around like a glass slipper dropped on a staircase at number seven. The Kenneth Branagh fairytale earned $7 million, which brought its international total to $300.6 million and its global one to $494.2 million.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 continues to do about as well as can be expected in eighth. The comedy earned $4.3 million from international audiences, bringing its overseas total to an okay $24.2 million.

Ninth this weekend is China Town, a film whose title is almost impossible to Google because there is already a pretty famous film with almost the same name, and there are also a bunch of Chinatown film festivals that muddy up its SEO. Anyway, it earned $3.8 million, and has a total to date of $4.4 million.

Finally this week we have Unfriended, the innovative/gimmicky horror movie that made waves in the US several weeks ago. The film is only playing in a few territories currently, so its $3.6 million total is pretty impressive even before you factor in the film's minuscule $1 million budget. It currently has a worldwide total of $32.3 million.


     


 
 

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