That Wacky International Box Office
Excerpted foreign box office info from Variety…
It was the biggest overseas weekend yet for “Dead Man’s Chest,” which has cumed $392 million in foreign coin, exceeding the domestic gross by $12 million to hit $772 million worldwide.
With 17% of foreign markets not yet open — including Spain and Germany — “Chest” will likely pass “Finding Nemo” at $865 million worldwide in a few more weeks to become Disney’s top performer in combined grosses.
“Superman Returns” remained on a far lower trajectory, with $7.1 million from more than 5,100 prints in 55 markets, lifting the foreign cume to $146 million and the worldwide take to $336 million.
“Superman Returns” had been expected to provide a one-two punch with “Dead Man’s Chest” in foreign markets, but the Man of Steel has shown only modest traction and the international cume for the pricey tentpole is now just 37% of “Chest,” while the worldwide is 43% of “Chest.”
UIP’s first major foreign launches of “Miami Vice” put the arm on $7 million at 1,275 playdates in 11 markets, led by a respectable first-place U.K. opening with $4 million at 406 and 20% share. Debuts were more moderate in Mexico with $950,000 at 336, good enough for third place, and in Russia with $750,000 at 230.
“Vice” has 44 foreign markets left, with Australia next on Thursday, followed by France Aug. 16.
ADD, Sun, 10:48p – A Reader writes in to say, “The article you just posted about Pirates International box office numbers from Variety has an error. It says ” With 17% of the foreign market not yet open- Including Spain and Germany.” I believe they meant Italy as it has already opened in Germany as of July 27th.”
I don’t actually know what the answer is, but it seems reasonable to note the question mark on the detail. DP
It seems like everyone should really start reporting worldwide grosses as a matter of course, since that’s vastly more useful than mere domestic numbers.
Just general box-office watching sites (such as Box Office Guru, Box Office Prophets etc) probably would if studios released movies at the same time. While Pirates etc are understandable (World Cup) i honestly don’t understand why they can’t release stuff like The Devil Wears Prada, Prairie Home Companion, Talledega Nights, The Lady in the Water etc in overseas territories quicker? In Australia we haven’t received any of those titles yet for absolutely NO reason. Our box-office is pretty dead right now. So much so that My Super Ex-Girlfriend was successful!
Actually, studios ARE trying harder to open the world day-and-date because of the ginormous loss of revenues from DVD piracy. But prints are expensive (as are subtitling & dubbing and different-language marketing materials), and if a film seems dicey outside of English-speaking territories (your first three titles being prime examples), they will indeed wait and test the waters.
The Brits seem to be quite the Mann fanactics so nice to see it do well there. I just hope it makes about 80 mil or so overseas and I’ll be happy camper. HGeat made 60% of its box office overseas so we shall see. DOes south America have good distubution? seems like a movie that would do well there.
Sad to see a Hurricane cause this much Mann bashing, but he will surely keep making films. Hopefully the arms dealing movie is put on hold for something historical or more like the Insider. Maybe a break from Foxx could help as well, another Crowe/Mann flick would be great.
From BOM’s Scotty HollyAyn:
“Silence implies consent and it is pathetic that Gibson’s ideas have thus far gone fundamentally unchallenged by Hollywood
Interesting theory about Mann’s films:
Last of the Mohicans – released by Fox
Heat – Warner Bros./Regency
Insider – Touchstone
Ali – Columbia/Sony
Collateral – Dreamworks
Miami Vice – Universal
Works around town…my guess. Because no one wants to hire him again after working with him. Given the cost of “Vice” and it’s pretty dismal returns…I’m curious who’d want to work with him now.
Or… You know… His projects have just been greenlit by different studios, all of which wanted some of his action on their slate, and he enjoys making industry contacts while MAYBE looking for a studio that will stick. Having every major company in town blacklisting a Director often doesn’t stay in the dark.
It also bears mentioning that he has one Paramount, and two Universal directing gigs on his slate. Not to forget one Columbia, and another Universal producing project lined up.
The little people inside the box on my desk sure do say funny things sometimes…
Miami Vice had to be done with Uni because they own the property. I can’t speak for the other projects, but Mann may be joining some of them after they’ve been in studio development for a while…hence he doesn’t get to determine which studio makes it.
Having a friend of mine work on “Miami Vice” the production and working on it tangentially myself (I work at Universal), I can say that there are MANY who would never work for this guy again or have anything to do with his projects. Not sayng the guy is a brilliant director and writer (he is), but it’s a business and business people hate dealing with egomaniacs that go over budget on their projects.
Yes, that all goes back to the point made awhile back about the man who worked on Gangs of New York and Pearl Harbor back to back. And who would the man work for again if given the choice? Bay.
Mann himself was interviewed about being ‘difficult’ to work with during some MV interviews, and he simply stated if you were going to fall behind, then you shouldn’t be on the project. Makes sense.
Box Office Mojo has a whole section devoted to international.
Kami: Australia gets “Lady in the Water”, “Talladega Nights” and “The Devil Wears Prada” in September. The Hoyts site has a good “Coming Soon” section with release dates and ratings.
Hop: Collateral was a DreamWorks (US-Canada)/Paramount (international) title. Ironically the Sunday Times (UK) reports that Par is not renewing its contract with Tom Cruise’s production company.
I believe what the Sunday Times would be refering to would be the lapse in the Par contract. “Not renewing” is currently an exageration.
Aww. Hopscotch I hope that isn’t true. Mann has a reputation of stubbornness to be sure, but I am sure difficulties and tensions were magnified by Katrina, WIlma and Rita…and the fact they had to do such diverse locations each with their own problems. The Florida crew had to be sent home a number of days didn;t they, to make sure their families were safe?
I wonder how much Farrell’s & Foxx’s 500-rounds-a-day practice munitions bill came to?
Hope the money is made back on DVD and international.
After seeing the movie I couldn;t help wondering if Mann was happy with the edit or look of it and wondered if a different release would be on the cards at some point.
A couple of years ago I worked with a guy who was working in the post sound on Collateral, and he said that while Mann was demanding, he and his coworkers recognized that it was all for the good of the film, and that it was the workers who couldn’t keep up with Mann’s high standards or who didn’t know what they were doing that were the real problem.
I think the Box Office Mojo people have always been crazy. The Fountainhead is a fairly hilarious movie.
A few years ago, I did a Q&A with Mann at the L.A. County Museum before a screening of HEAT. Knowing of his reputation, I was absolutely petrified. He did get snippy once or twice, but overall he was cordial, and more importantly, gave excellent and thoughtful answers, and even laughed at one of my jokes. But being in his presence, I can fully understand why some people would be afraid to work with him, regardless of the final result.
Hmm good post about Mann on the Hot Blog and more silly bashing over at Elsewhere, very intresting.
Seems the actors and camera men dont seem to mind working with him, as all seem to do at least 2 or 3 of his movies.
Considering his budget history, I believe the Hurricane is adequate proof for the overrun.
Cant wait for Feeny’s book
Chucky, still doesn’t provide any excuse as to why we have to wait three months for Devil Wears Prada, two months of Lady and a month and a bit for Talladega. I don’t wanna see either of those last two but was using them as examples.
Oh, but we did get My Super Ex-Girlfriend the same time as you guys! Man, we’re so freakin’ lucky.
And don’t even get me started on the amount of smaller releases we haven’t received yet. Hell, we’re still getting 2005 releases for crying out loud.