Over There: International Box Office for October 16-18, 2015

By Edwin Davies

October 19, 2015

Iron Man minus minus minus.

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Paul Rudd’s back (or has grown to his regular size after spending months being too tiny to see) this week as Ant-Man opened in China and absolutely dominated. Of the $43.5 million that the Marvel film earned this weekend, $42.4 million of it came from China, giving the franchise its second biggest opening ever behind only Age of Ultron. That pushes its overseas total to $275.9 million and its global one to $454.6 million. Those totals should swell to $300 and $500 million before Scott Lang is finished.

The Martian shifts gently down into second place with $37 million. The Ridley Scott smash has now earned $175.4 million, which is the sixth best total ever for the director. The number to beat is Prometheus’s international total of $276.9 million, which seems pretty achievable given the momentum and quality of this particular ode to science and growing potatoes.

Hotel Transylvania is third as it continues to follow a similar path to its predecessor. The Adam Sandler vehicle (which seems to benefit from not forcing people to actually look at Adam Sandler) has so far earned $131.1 million overseas, and it should be able to match or eclipse the first film’s total of $210.1 million before all is said and done.

Fourth is Goodbye Mr. Loser, the Chinese comedy that has been tearing up the local box office in recent weeks. It earned $22 million this weekend, giving it a new running total of $184 million.

Pan is in fifth place as the Joe Wright-directed debacle hopes the applause of foreign audiences will be enough to keep it alive. The prognosis seems pretty bleak, though, as the fantasy with a $150 million price tag earned $14.4 million, giving it a new overseas total of $47.1 million, and a global one of $72.8 million. There is no guarantee that the film will even match its production budget globally, and everyone knows that a film with that big a budget needs to earn about three times its production budget to see a profit. Warner Bros. is going to take a bath on this one, and they would be wise to throw all the scripts for any planned Pan sequels in there, too.




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Crimson Peak, which debuted to pretty mediocre numbers in the US, did slightly better internationally with $13.4 million overseas vs. $12.8 million at home. A global total to date of $26.2 million isn’t that bad compared to the film’s budget of $55 million budget, but it’s still going to need to finish north of $150 million for Universal to start feeling good about it. Guillermo del Toro’s last film, Pacific Rim, did gangbusters overseas, but there’s a big difference between a PG-13 giant robots movie and an R-rated Gothic romance tinged with horror.

The Intern continues to do well in seventh, having earned $11.3 million. That gives it an overseas total of $76.8 million and a worldwide one of $135.5 million, putting it on course to be Nancy Meyers’ fourth film in a row to earn more than $100 million internationally and $200 million globally. That’s a level of consistency that is rare for comedy directors, and confirms that Meyers is very good at what she does, even though a lot of critics don’t think what she does is any good.

The Little Prince is in eighth place as the 3D animated version of the classic children’s book added $10 million for a new total of $38 million, which is not bad considering that it’s only playing in a few territories.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is in ninth place as the YA sequel chases down the total of its predecessor. The first Maze Runner earned $238.3 million last year, and the second film added $8.7 million for a new total of $180.3 million. The film has pretty much run out of breath in the US at this point, so its only chance of surpassing the first film’s global total of $340.8 million now depends on the international marketplace giving it a second wind. Currently, The Scorch Trials has $255.8 million in total.

Finally this week we have The Walk, which has struggled to catch the attention of audiences both at home and abroad. It added $6.7 million this week for a new overseas total of $17.4 million, or nearly double its domestic total of $9.1 million. Though the film probably won’t lose too much money because it only cost $35 million, it’s on course to become the lowest grossing Robert Zemeckis film since Romancing the Stone, which earned $86.6 million worldwide back in 1984. With inflation, that would be more than $200 million today, so to say The Walk is something a disappointment from one of the most commercially consistent directors of the past three decades is an understatement.


     


 
 

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