Over There: International Box Office

By Edwin Davies

June 1, 2015

I'm sure Superman can fix this.

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Dwayne Johnson already starred in one of the biggest films of all-time this year. For most people, that would probably be reason enough to rest on their laurels. Not for The Rock, though. Hot on the heels of Furious 7, which is still slowly creeping up on the #3 slot all-time, comes San Andreas, the huge disaster movie that topped both the domestic and international charts this week, in the process suggesting that Johnson has made the long-delayed transition from being someone who elevates existing franchises (F&F, G.I. Joe) to new heights to someone who can open films on his own.

San Andreas began its campaign with a very solid $60 million this weekend, which gives it a global opening weekend of $113.2 million. It still has a way to go to recoup its $110 million (for newbies: the general rule is that a film needs to earn three to four times its budget to see an actual profit once marketing costs are accounted for), but Johnson's international appeal (his last solo outing, Hercules, earned $170.7 million), combined with the fact that disaster movies have tended to do very well with overseas audiences, should see this one to profitability pretty comfortably.

Second this week is the Japanese animated movie Stand By Me Doraemon, a 3D adaptation of the long-running manga which looks much more adorable than the title, which makes it sound like the title character is going to look for a dead body by some railway tracks, might suggest. The film actually came out last year in most territories, but this weekend opened to a huge $30 million in China, becoming the first Japanese film to open there in three years, due mostly to political tensions between the two countries. Stand By Me Doraemon has now earned $127 million, albeit belatedly.

Tomorrowland is third this week with $29.3 million. When the film had a lukewarm opening last weekend, the main hope for long term success lay in it either having legs domestically or being embraced internationally. Neither seems to be happening, unfortunately, since the misfire from Brad Bird and Disney fell precipitously at home and has so far earned only $70 million internationally despite being in 88% of its potential markets. It's not completely out of the realm of possibility for the film to rally, but with a global total so far of $133.1 million against a budget of $190 million, it's shaping up to be a new John Carter for Disney.

Mad Max: Fury Road is fourth as the George Miller epic continues to cruise along nicely. Currently the best-reviewed wide release film of 2015 - a title that it looks unlikely to lose until we get to awards season - Fury Road earned $21.6 million this weekend, bringing its international total to $165 million and its global one to $280.9 million. Like Tomorrowland, Fury Road has a sizable price tag attached to it (at least $150 million, probably more) but a final total somewhere north of $400 million globally looks increasingly likely for one of the year's less likely triumphs.




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Avengers: Age of Ultron rounds out the top 5 with $17.6 million, giving it a new international total of $894.2 million, just shy of the $895.2 million that the original earned in 2012. It should ultimately reach $1 billion in a couple of weeks, while its July 4th opening in Japan should give it the boost it needs to ultimately topple Furious 7 as the biggest global hit of the year. Age of Ultron's global total is currently a huge $1.32 billion, good for sixth all-time. It should overtake the final Harry Potter film sometime next weekend to move up to fifth.

Pitch Perfect 2 is sixth with $10.4 million. As I said a few weeks ago, comedies and musicals tend not to do as well as other genres overseas owing in no small part to the cultural specificity of the jokes or, in the case of jukebox musicals like the Pitch Perfect series, the song choices. Still, its current total of $80.7 shows significant growth over the $50.3 million the original earned, and its global take of $228.2 million is nearly double the $115.4 million of the first one. That's pretty fantastic growth for a series built on word-of-mouth and low costs.

Spy, which opened in some territories last week and hits the US on Friday, continued to do pretty well as it added $9 million for a new total of $27.8 million. That's a very encouraging start for the Paul Feig-directed action comedy, and suggests that it should have no problem surpassing the $70.3 million earned by The Heat in 2013, and it could end up higher than the $119.3 million Bridesmaids earned in 2011.

The remake of Poltergeist lands in eighth this weekend with $6.6 million, for a new total of $19.1 million. Horror can be pretty hit-and-miss with foreign audiences, especially when it comes to fairly glossy productions like Poltergeist, but a current global total of $57.3 million against a budget of $35 million isn't a bad start.

Ninth this week is PK which, much like Stand By Me Doraemon, is a 2014 film which has only just opened in China. A science fiction comedy about an alien who comes to Earth, PK is the most successful Indian film in history, and the $3.3 million it earned in China adds to its legend and brings its global total to $93 million.

Finally this weekend we have yet another 2014 hangover opening in China, as the best forgotten Aaron Eckhart vehicle I, Frankenstein earned $3 million there this weekend, bringing its global total to a pretty weak $74.5 million, which looks even worse when compared to the film's budget of $65 million. China looks unlikely to rescue the film from its status as a disaster, but at least it means that someone wrote about I, Frankenstein, which is the most publicity it has had in quite some time.


     


 
 

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