Swimming with Sharks

March 13, 2005

Shark Tale finished its international run with a second place $2.08 million opening in Japan on 485 screens. Its $4,296 per screen average it quite low for the market and generally means the film won't have the usual legs films in Japan have. The film performed much better in Italy where it finished first again with $3.0 million, down just 23% during its sophomore stint. Overall it took in $5.2 million to raise its international total to $181 million, but without any more openings it might struggle to hit $200 million.

• While Ray slipped out of the top five on the international charts, again, it was still able to pull in $4.3 million on 1400 screens in 36 markets lifting international total to $32.1 million. It's biggest performance came in France where the film dropped just 11% to $2.2 million there and $5.25 million during its run so far. The latter figure is just $25,000 behind what the multi-Oscar winning biopic earned in Germany, which is currently the most film's most profitable market. Those Oscar wins helped the film in many markets including a 17% increase during its second weekend in South Korea, 16% in its ninth weekend in Germany, 8% during its fifth weekend in Spain and more.
• No major openings left Finding Neverland slipping out of the top five with $3 million internationally this weekend and $55.6 million overall. The film was down nearly 40% in France to just $821,858 during its second week of release; it is doing significantly better in Spain with $825,000 during its fourth weekend of release and $6.0 million overall in the market.
• Blade: Trinity's opening in Italy was about as strong as one could expect at $1,334,895 on 292 screens for fourth place. That result was the lion's share of its $1.56 million weekend, which lifted its overall box office just past $60 million with a couple more major markets to go, including Spain this weekend.
• Boogeyman struggled in its international debut bringing in $1.52 million on 318 screens in the U.K. That was strong enough for first place, but this was due mostly to the lack of competition in the market as no other new release made it into the top ten.
• The family friendly market of Mexico was anything but to Are We There Yet? as the film flopped with just shy of $500,000 on 230 screens. The film performed better in the U.K. with $717,000, also on 230 screens. That lead to a $1.5 million weekend and $6.9 million internationally so far.
• SpongeBob SquarePants hung onto the final spot in the top ten in the U.K. with $567,000 this weekend and just over $10 million during its run. Internationally the film added $1.4 million this weekend to its $46.4 million overall.
• Sophie Scholl - Die Letzen Tage, held up extremely well during its second week of release dropping a tiny 5% to $1.37 million, rising a spot to third in the process. The true life story of the German resistance movement during W.W.II has now brought in $2.8 million in two weeks of release in its native market.
• Die Wilden Kerle II dropped to fourth place in its Native Germany with $1.3 million for the week and $6.0 million overall.
• Andrew Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom of the Opera was finally knocked out of the top spot in Japan with $1.3 million for the week and $28.8 million during its six week run. It wasn't as strong in its debut in Chile where it missed the top ten with just $13,500 on 5 screens.
• Assault on Precinct 13 opened in fourth place in France with $1,240,214 on 357 screens.
• Closer continues to wrap its international run with $1.2 million this weekend including a $100,000 debut in New Zealand, helping its total rise to $72.5 million.
• Ocean's Twelve hit $234 million over the weekend with half its $1.2 million weekend box office coming from its fifth weekend in the U.K.
• The Aviator climbed to $90.5 million internationally over the weekend thanks mostly to its $635,000 performance in Australia but the film is still placing well in Argentina, ($120,000 and second place) and Chile, ($100,000 and third place.) It did fall out of the top ten in Germany with $330,000 and almost out of the top 20 in Spain with $58,000.
• Hotel Rwanda expanded into wide release in the U.K. finishing in fifth place with $735,000, a mixed result. In Spain the film dropped 35% to $270,000 and in Australia is fell just 24% to $110,000. On the downside, the film opened in Norway with just $48,000 on 16 screens, missing the top ten.
• Iznogoud: Calife à la Place du Calife saw its box office get cut in half, again, to just $1.1 million for the week. It has already earned $15.3 million in that one market alone, so that mitigates the sharp drop-offs.
• The Grudge opened in Germany taking fifth place with $1.0 million on 255 screens. It performed much better in Argentina where it just missed first place with $120,000.
• Cuore Sacro, a.k.a. Sacred Heart, fell 28% during its second weekend of release in its native market of Italy. That pushed the film from fourth to sixth with $829,775 over the weekend and $2,375,960 so far.
• Sideways debuted in Japan with $87,000 on just 8 screens, which is a good per screen average but its ability to expand is questionable at this point. Even so it hit $24.2 million internationally thanks to strong holdovers like Spain where the film dropped just 22% during its third weekend of release to $690,000.
• The never-ending run for Howl's Moving Castle continues in Japan with $790,343 over the week for its sixteenth week in the top five and $174,087,371 during its run there.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is really struggling during its international run. This week is failed to crack the top ten in Italy, a market that is generally very kind to films of this nature; it opened with just $245,000 on 128 for an anemic per screen average of $1,914, $20,000 on 10 screens in the Netherlands and in Norway it opened with just $17,500 on 6 screens. In the U.K. the film dropped our of the top ten after just one week of wide release with $530,000. This is the first film by Wes Anderson to struggle like this; perhaps the Dysfunctional stories are not longer grabbing people's attention.
• Shall We Dance? remained in fourth this past weekend in the U.K. with $760,000 raising its total in the market to just under $6.0 million. So far the film has brought in $79.3 million internationally and has a couple of major markets to go with France and Japan still ahead.
• The Notebook held steady in Japan taking in $654,943 this week lifting its total in the market to $8,966,133 while its international box office is now sitting at $31.1 million.
• Felix - The Film slipped to seventh in German with $637,168 for the week and $6,222,674 during its five week run.
• Je préfère qu'on reste amis had a rough second week in France dropping 52% to $614,770 and 10th place.
• Coach Carter held up about as well as one could reasonably expecting in the U.K. dropping 34% to $593,600 to land at ninth place. So far the film has made $1.9 million there to start its international run.
• The Bourne Supremacy crossed $10 million in Japan with $578,484 for the week, enough for a seventh place finish there. With $110.6 million internationally the film has surpassed the original some time ago.
• Flight of the Phoenix opened in the U.K. but failed to make the top ten with $562,000 on 270 screens. This result was well below expectations and even more surprising given the slow week it was for new releases there.
• Harold & Kumar get the Munchies flopped in its international debut in the U.K> with just $547,000 on 285 screens.
• Despite opening well in Spain, Birth plummeted 62% to just $510,00 and 9th place.
• Kinsey couldn't entice anyone in the U.K. opening with $227,000 on 79 screens. It was an even worse in Spain at just $175,000 on 82 screens and Poland with $50,000 on 40 screens.
• Alfie struggled in Italy finishing in seventh place with $460,000, it was playing on only 117 screens so its per theatre average was marginally better than its placing would otherwise indicate.
• Alexander continues in Japan this week adding $440,000 to its $11.0 million box office in the market and nearly $130 million internationally.
• As expected, The Princess Diaries 2 lost half its opening box office during its second week of release in Japan landing at $235,962.
• Downfall returned to the top spot in Norway with $225,000 during its third weekend of release. The film doesn't open in the U.K., Australia and Italy till next month so its international box office of nearly $57 million substantially.
• White Noise opened poorly in Germany but held up even worse losing nearly two thirds of its box office to land at 13th place with just $200,000.
• After opening poorly in the U.K. last weekend, Spanglish fell out of the top 20 with just $113,603, down 80% during its sophomore stint. It looks like Mexico will be the film's most profitable international market and that's will only be just north of $3 million.
• Alone in the Dark brought in just $32,000 during its second week in Germany, down nearly 88% from the week before.
• Criminal crashed in its debut in Italy with just $29,500 on 24 screens for the worst per screen average in the top twenty.
• Super Size Me was anything but in its debut in Argentina where it finished with $22,000 on 16 screens last weekend.
• Wicker Park fared even worse with $21,000 on 15 screens.

Filed under: International Box Office, The Bourne Supremacy, Shark Tale, Ocean's Twelve, The Grudge, The Aviator, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie, The Notebook, Ray, Sideways, Coach Carter, Shall We Dance?, White Noise, Blade: Trinity, Finding Neverland, The Phantom of the Opera, Boogeyman, Spanglish, Alexander, Closer, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Hotel Rwanda, Flight of the Phoenix, Assault On Precinct 13, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Alfie, Wicker Park, Super Size Me, Kinsey, Der Untergang, Birth, Hauru no ugoku shiro, Criminal, Are We There Yet?, Alone in the Dark