War Ends World Tour with a Blast

September 4, 2005

War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.

• A trio of new openings helped The Skeleton Key's international haul increase to $4.4 million over the weekend, but that still wasn't enough to keep it from falling out of the top five. The best of the bunch in terms of raw dollars was in South Korea with $256,000 on 100 screens, barely enough for eighth place. It performed marginally better in the twin markets of the Czech Republic and Slovakia where it earned fifth and second place debuts with a combined $33,000. Its best market overall was Germany at $1.1 million, a third less than it earned last weekend.
• Madagascar remained in first place in Japan with $1.6 million over the weekend for a $14.4 million running tally there. That one market represented nearly half of the film's $3.9 million weekend haul. It now has $276.3 million internationally, more than $40 million of that coming from Germany and another $39 million coming from the U.K.
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith plummeted 53% during its second weekend in Spain, which is a tad high, even for that market. It was still able to make $2.45 million over the weekend bringing its total in the market to $10.0 million. It held up much better in France added $1.29 million to its $18.0 million total there. It's still going strong in a few other markets pushing its international total to $227 million.
• It's four weeks in a row atop the South Korean box office for local hit Welcome to Dongmakgol, this weekend it added $3.3 million to its $33.5 million running tally and its still going strong.
• The Wedding Crashers remained in top spot during its third weekend in Australia with $1.54 million over the weenend and $8.82 million overall. It had a similar result in New Zealand with $200,000 over the weekend and $1.0 overall. The film also opened in Holland, but its $235,000, second place opening on 72 screens was good, but not great. Internationally the film has made $42.8 million, more than half of that coming from the U.K. alone.
• Stealth debuted in France with $1.27 million on 404 screens and in Thailand with $450,000 on 109 screens, which was the vast majority of the film's $1.9 million weekend. So far the film has managed just $18.2 million internationally, the largest single market being South Korea and $3.45 million.
• Leave When Clapping added another $1.7 million to its $12.6 million running tally in its native market of South Korea. That total puts it ahead of such Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith but well behind local hits like Welcome to Dongmakgol or Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
• Monster-In-Law opened in Brazil taking an impressive first place with $1.34 million on 194 screens. After a slow start in Holland, the film lost more than a third of its box office falling to $38,000 for the weekend and $134,000 overall. On the other hand, it slipped just 16% during its sixth weekend in Australia adding $260,000 to its $6.4 million total there, which is one of the film's largest single markets in its $51.9 million run.
• No new major openings for Sin City this weekend, but it still managed $930,000 in Germany, $450,000 in Spain, and $60,000 in New Zealand, (all in its third weekend there) as well as $50,000 during its fourth weekend in Argentina. Overall the film has made $70 million internationally and will surpass its domestic total shortly.
• The French film, Peindre ou faire l'amour, which means To Paint or to Make Love in English, (I know, normally I would make a joke about how little French I know, but that's really want it means. Seriously.) The film opened in second place with $1.54 million on 317 screens over the weekend. It also opened in Belgium but missed the top ten with an unknown amount.
• Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo opened in third place in Spain with $850,000 on 275 screens and fifth place in Italy with just $224,000 on 101 screens. Holdovers ranged from mediocre in Holland down 33% to $190,000 on 87 screens; to bad, down 61% to $63,000 in Austria; to abominable, down 85% to $61,500 in Germany. The $1.39 million it earned this weekend did double the film's early international total lifting it to $2.6 million.
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith slipped by 28% during its eighth weekend in the top ten in Japan adding $1.33 million to its $74.95 million total there. Internationally the film has $458 million putting it ahead of The Matrix Reloaded and into 13th place overall, maybe. There's a lot more confusion about the all-time international charts than there really should be. Worldwide Sith has $837 million and is slowly reeling in Finding Nemo for tenth place on the All-Time Chart. Will it get there? Maybe, but Lucas might have to give it one more push to do so, perhaps right before the DVD is released.
• A Sound of Thunder made its international debut a week ahead of it domestic and that seems to have worked out for it. In Spain the film opened in second place with $1.26 million on 300 screens. Even with the poor legs that most film have in the market, it will still earn more there than it does stateside, and that's in terms of raw dollars and before taking into account the relative size of the two markets.
• The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl opened in eighth place in the U.K. with $720,000 on 302 screens, but its hard to describe that result as anything better than mediocre. It's doing relatively better in a handful of major and medium markets with the best of the rest being Brazil where the film managed $206,000 over the weekend for a $2.30 million running tally. It earned nearly the same over the weekend in Spain with $202,000 and has earned nearly the same during its run in Russia where it added $104,000 to its $2.24 million total so far. Internationally the film has made $12.5 million, $3.165 million of that coming from Mexico.
• Crash debut in New Zealand with $92,000 on 14 screens for the best per screen average in the market. And in the U.K. it had the second best drop-off in the top ten slipping by just 19% to $1.1 million for the weekend and $6.1 million during its run.
• The Jacket finally had some good news opening in sixth place in France with $1.04 million on just 224 screens. Taking into account the sizes of the French and domestic markets, this opening is better than what the film earned in total here. Things weren't as rosy in Holland where the film opened with just $30,000 on 12 screens.
• The Cave opened day-and-date in the U.K. and did about the same, relatively speaking, with $1.0 million on 276 screens. That's roughly the same as the similar themed film, The Descent, which actually opened with more in British Pounds, but less in terms of American dollars. However, the latter film cost a mere $6 million compared to $30 million of the former film.
• Last week I mentioned a South Korean film that I thought was called Bad Detective 2: Daero's Choice. It turns out its real name is Short Time, so I wasn't even close. In my defense, Bad, Detective, Daero's and Choice were practically the only four words on its official site that were written in letters I could recognize. The film fell 40% during its second weekend in the market but remained in third place with $990,000 on 175 screens for a $3.785 million running tally.
• Dark Water opened in Spain with just $790,000 on 200 screens, which is low for a horror film in that market. It also saw steep declines in all three sophomore sessions this weekend losing nearly half in Sweden at $66,600 and Norway at $32,000. However, it held up much better in Poland slipping less than 20% to $75,000.
• Must Love Dogs made its international debut over the weekend when it opened in second place in Germany with $970,000 on 361 screens. That's a little on the low end for romantic comedies in the market.
• After the Sunset was a disappointment here, but its did better internationally. It had one of its last opens this week with $795,000 on 132 screens in South Korea, $955,000 including Thursday.
• George A. Romero's Land of the Dead opened in Japan but failed to make much of an impact with just $775,000 on 137 screens and it did only marginally better in Sweden with $120,000 on 19 screens. So far the film has managed just $8.9 million, but has many more markets left to open in.
• Danny the Dog plummeted 53% during its second weekend in the U.K., the worst performance there in the top ten. And the $420,000 it earned there was less than the $430,000 the film made in Australia, which is a market less than half its size.
• Six new films in the top ten in Italy didn't hurt The Amityville Horror too much as it has the best week-to-week drop-off in the top ten there falling just 43% to $314,000 for a two-week total of $1.43 million. It was not as fortunate in Mexico losing 58% to $434,000 for the week and $1.467 million in total. The film also opened in Argentina with $95,000 on 31 screens, which is a middling beginning. Overall the film has $33.3 million internationally, and is closing in on $100 million worldwide.
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had the worst week-to-week performance in the top ten in France falling 44% to $740,000 for the weekend and $2.5 million during its run. Some estimates have the film hitting $100 million worldwide, but there's been no confirmation yet.
• The Transporter 2 added another $695,000 to its $7.23 million during its run in France. The film also opened in Belgium over the weekend scoring a third place victory, but no box office numbers were released. This weekend it opens in Germany speaking markets in Europe and has a tapered expansion throughout the fall.
• Red Eye started its international run with a quartet of opening in Asian markets. Its best market in terms of raw dollars was Hong Kong with $247,000 on 30 screens, good enough for third place. But in Taiwan the film opened in second place with $243,000 on 53 screens while earning $100,000 in both Malaysia and Indonesia. It's $690,000 on 132 screens is a good start, but these markets are not particularly useful when it comes to predicting worldwide success.
• Mindhunters opened in third place in Italy with $670,000 on 228 screens, which is much better than the film did here on a relative basis. Overall the film has $13.8 million internationally, about three times what it earned here, but less than a third of what it needed to show a profit.
• In Good Company opened in South Korea with $612,000 on 95 screens for a sixth place finish. The film now has more than $14 million internationally and $60 million worldwide.
• Tom Yum Goong added another $442,500 to its $2.25 million, two-week total in South Korea and managed to earn another $100,000 in Hong Kong for a $1.4 million total there. So far the film is tracking better than Tony Jaa's previous film, Ong-Bak, which bodes well for Tom Yum Goong's chances here.
• The Brothers Grimm finished first in its international debut earning $525,000 on 42 screens in Taiwan, which is a better than expected result.
• Japan is the last market where Robots is still in the top ten, and this weekend it finished in tenth place with $444,406. That boosted its total in the market to $11.65 million and $131 million internationally.
• Howl's Movie Castle opened in ninth place in Germany with $414,000 on 410 screens, which is a really poor start.
• Drink Drank Drunk slipped to second place during its second weekend in its native market of Hong Kong adding $316,000 to its total of $1.18 million so far.
• The Upside of Anger missed the top ten in its debut in France with $377,000 on 100 screens, which is still a reasonable start given its small screen count.
• Don't Come Knocking doesn't opened stateside till February, but it debuted in Germany with a tenth place, $340,000 opening on just 112 screens.
• The French/Spanish co-production, Mean Spirit, debut in top spot in Hong Kong with $338,000 on 24 screens.
• A Lot Like Love may have spent its last weekend in the top ten in Brazil with $130,000 for the weekend and $1.11 million overall. The film also opened in Italy but performed poorly with $193,000 on 141 screens.
• Movies aimed at young girls tend to do poorly internationally and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is no exception. This weekend it opened in Spain but missed the top 10 with just $75,000 on 102 screen, and was only slightly better in the U.K. with $200,000 on 177 screens.
• Guess Who saw its box office sliced nearly in half during its second weekend in Italy with $124,000 on 111 screens for an total of $540,000 so far. It was even worse in Spain where it lost two-thirds of its box office falling out of the top ten with $140,000, but at least the film has made $5.86 million there. Overall the film has $30 million internationally and just shy of $100 million worldwide.
• Batman Begins was finally pushed out of the top spot in Sweden this weekend, but still added $250,000 to its $2.93 million running tally in the market.
• Coach Carter lost more than half its box office during the second week of released in France with just $245,000 for a $795,000 two-week total.
• Kicking and Screaming is showing some strong legs in Australia dipping to just 18% to $240,000 for a total of $1.2 million so far. While it is still early in the film's international run, a total of just $2.6 million must be disappointing for the studio.
• Open Water finally opened in South Korea but barely made the top ten with $230,000 on 88 screens.
• The Norwegian film, Tommys Inferno, had a 37% drop-off during its second weekend in its home market landing at second place with $206,000. The film has made just shy of $700,000 so far, but it's potential depends a lot on whether it can find an audience outside of Norway.
• Kung Fu Hustle opened in New Zealand with $91,000 on 41 screens. While this isn't a great result, combined with is $112,000 in Australia it did help cut the gap to $100 million worldwide to just $700,000.
• Sympathy for Lady Vengeance hung onto the final spot on the top ten in South Korea this weekend with $175,000, which pushed its total in the market to $22.5 million.
• Poland may just become Valiant's best market internationally, at least compared to the relative size of the market in total. This weekend the film finished first during its second week of release growing by more than 20% to $175,000 for a two-week total of $484,000. If the film could have the same level of success everywhere else it could easily make more than $100 million internationally, as it is, it has just $32 million so far.
• No Entry opened in the U.K. with $167,000 on just 34 screens for the second best per screen average in the top twenty.
• The Perfect Man saw major declines in the U.K. dropping 65% to just $117,000 for a $820,000, two-week total. The film also made $15,000 more in Holland and $16,000 in the United Arab Emirates for an early international total of $1.3 million.
• Barsaat fell by 43% during its second weekend in the U.K. adding another $145,000 to its $595,000 running tally there.
• Raise Your Voice dropped to $135,000 during its second weekend in Italy for a running tally in the market of $694,000.
• Lords of Dogtown opened in Australia with $122,000 on 104 screens, below lowered expectations.
• Me and You and Everyone We Know had the best week-to-week drop-off in the top twenty in the U.K. slipping to just 12% to $125,000, which pushed its total in the market to $385,000.
• Fantastic Four has fallen out of the top ten in most markets, with Australia being one exception where it earned a tenth place finish with $110,000. It still has two more major markets left to open in, Japan and Italy, and should hit $300 million worldwide before then as it's just $1 million from that milestone.
• Hotel Rwanda was nearly flat during its second weekend in Mexico adding $92,000 to its $184,000 running tally.
• The Rising lost more than half its box office in the U.K. falling to 19th place with $80,000. It did have a good start for a niche market film and has reached $1.0 million in that market.
• Millions didn't holdup as well this week as it did last losing 33% in Australia to $50,000 and 37% in New Zealand to $15,000. Overall the film has now made $265,000 and $130,000 in the two markets and $5 million internationally.
• Are We There Yet? opened in Spain with just $61,500 on 100 screens. After earning $80 million domestically, the film has really struggled internationally and is currently sitting at $15.2 million and still hasn't reached $100 million worldwide.
• Racing Stripes lost more than 60% during its second weekend in Hong Kong landing in sixth place with $60,000.
• The Longest Yard saw its box office sliced nearly in half during its second weekend in Sweden falling to tenth place with $48,000.
• Mysterious Skin dipped a mere 15% to $42,000 on just 11 screens in Australia for a two-week total of $130,000.
• White Noise made its debut in Poland but could do no better than ninth place with $33,500 on 25 screens. The film was a surprise here domestically, but hasn't been able to replicate that performance internationally with just $35 million so far, more than a third of that coming from the U.K.
• The Perfect Catch lost 85% during its third weekend in the U.K. earning just $27,000.
• Thanks to a expansion from 3 screens to 5, Primer barely dropped at all during its sophomore stint in the U.K. earning another $13,000. That gives the film $36,600, or about 5 times what it cost to make. Its debut in Australia wasn't as strong as the film made just over $10,600 on six screens.
• Riding Giants opened in Italy with just $22,000 on 30 screens.
• It just keeps getting worse for The Devil's Rejects, this weekend the film plummeted by 75% in the U.K. to just $22,000.
• Beauty Shop had the worst week-to-week performance in New Zealand losing 46% to just $21,000 for the weekend and $70,000 overall.
• The Woodsman lost nearly 40% of its box office during its second weekend in New Zealand landing at $19,000, barely enough for tenth place. The film was obviously made to be an award season contender, but that didn't work out, and now it has only made $4 million worldwide.
• Seed of Chucky opened in South Africa in ninth place with just $18,500 on 25 screens. Overall the film has made nearly $8 million internationally and very close to $25 million worldwide.
• Being Julia lost 36% of its box office during its sophomore sting in Chile landing at eighth place with just over $18,000. Without the added publicity of the Oscar race, the film has struggled internationally earning $6.2 million.
• It's All Gone Pete Tong opened in Norway with just $10,000 on 7 screens, including previews.
• Palindromes opened in Australia but could only earn $10,000 on 7 screens.
• Ice Princess opened in Austria the week before last with $35,000 on 44 screens but dropped to just $8,000 this week. To say the film is struggling internationally is an understatement as it has made just $3 million so far.
• Darwin's Nightmare opened in Australia but the documentary, it could only manage $2365 on 2 screens.

Filed under: International Box Office, Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Wedding Crashers, Batman Begins, Madagascar, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Longest Yard, Fantastic Four, Robots, Monster-in-Law, Sin City, Guess Who, Coach Carter, The Amityville Horror, Red Eye, White Noise, Crash, Kicking and Screaming, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Racing Stripes, The Skeleton Key, In Good Company, Must Love Dogs, The Transporter 2, Fever Pitch, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Brothers Grimm, Beauty Shop, Stealth, Open Water, Dark Water, Danny the Dog, Ice Princess, Hotel Rwanda, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, A Lot Like Love, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Valiant, The Upside of Anger, Kung Fu Hustle, The Devil’s Rejects, Seed of Chucky, The Perfect Man, The Cave, Tom yum goong, Lords of Dogtown, Raise Your Voice, Being Julia, Millions, The Jacket, Hauru no ugoku shiro, Mindhunters, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Riding Giants, A Sound of Thunder, The Woodsman, The Rising, Mysterious Skin, Palindromes, Don’t Come Knocking, Primer, Darwin's Nightmare, It's All Gone Pete Tong, Are We There Yet?, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, After the Sunset