International Top of the Chart: Robin the Richest
May 27, 2010
Robin Hood remained in the top spot on the international chart, hitting the century mark over the weekend. It did show weakness in a lot of major markets and overall fell 57% to $30.09 million on 7,073 screens in 56 markets for a total of $125.37 million internationally and $191.53 million worldwide. Granted, it had no major openings this past weekend, but this is still troubling. Additionally, it only has two major openings left (China and Japan) so it is not like it has a lot of markets left to draw from. That said, it has made more globally than it cost to make, and it should add another $100 million or so to that final tally. It should eventually break even.
The film's biggest single market was France, where it added $3.34 million on 655 screens over the weekend for a total of $12.33 million after two. That was down 58%, but still enough to remain in first place. It also remained in first place in Australia thanks to a mere 36% decline with $2.99 million on 461 screens over the weekend for a total of $9.20 million so far. On the other end of the scale we find the U.K., which saw a 76% drop-off to $1.97 million on 536 screens over the weekend and a total of $13.13 million. It came up against two major releases, Prince of Persia and Streetdance 3-D, which is troubling news. The fact that Streetdance 3-D came out on top is also troubling, but in a different way. (More on that in a second.)
Shrek Forever After started its international run in second place with $25.80 million on 1,664 screens in 9 markets, which gave it the best per screen average out of all of the million dollar films. Of that, $19.66 million was earned on 1,250 screens in Russia, which is the biggest opening in that market of all time. It's 1% higher than Avatar. I'm going to go ahead and declare this an anomaly, as there's no real chance that this will be repeated in many other markets, if at all. Meanwhile, it made $1.39 million on 100 screens in neighboring Ukraine, which is also impressive, but not record-breaking, and likely a better indicator of its potential overall. If it can make this much money elsewhere, it could make $1 billion worldwide. This might seem overly optimistic, but it's not completely out of the question. After all, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs made less than $200 million domestically but almost $700 million internationally. Shrek could top both of those figures, so while $1 billion will be difficult, it is possible.
The other big film opening internationally this weekend was Prince of Persia, which placed third with $18.00 million on 3,651 screens in 23 markets. It opened in first place in most major markets, including Spain ($2.85 million on 603 screens); Germany ($2.8 million on 650); and Italy ($1.89 million on 548 screens over the weekend and $2.53 million in total). On the other hand, the film opened in second place in the U.K. with $1.98 million on 468 screens, which is barely half of what Streetdance 3-D made. Either I've grossly underestimated the appeal of 3D dance movies, or Prince of Persia is in trouble when it opens domestically tomorrow. We will soon find out.
Next up is Iron Man 2, but we will get to that film and the rest of the multi-million dollar films on the weekend. There are not many of them.
Filed under: International Box Office, Shrek Forever After, Robin Hood, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time