Animation Overseas

Horton and other animated/live-action features prosper abroad as well as at home:

As in the U.S., school holidays drove international markets during the weekend, with "10,000 BC" maintaining its No. 1 overseas spot for the third consecutive stanza ...

Placing a close No. 2 was 20th Century Fox International's "Dr. Suess' Horton Hears A Who!" The Blue Sky Studios animation title drew an estimated $25.2 million from 6,600 screens in 49 territories, and at least 10 of those were new, including the U.K. (with $6.1 million including previews from 508 screens) and Australia ($2.5 million from about 350 sites). The overseas cume is $50 million, with $136.5 million worldwide.

Capitalizing on the holiday season, Paramount opened "The Spiderwick Chronicles" in 29 markets, nabbing an estimated $15.6 million on the weekend overall from 3,642 screens in 51 territories and grabbing the No. 3 spot. The film's overseas cume stands at $30.1 million.

Other international cume updates: New Line's "The Golden Compass," $276.6 ... and Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks," $138 million.

Not too shabby. Alvin, Horton, 10k, Spiderwick, Golden Compass and probably a couple I've left off are all doing swimmingly at foreign and/or domestic box offices.

So we can see that there is a poop-load of animation doing well around the world.

The point to be made: the success of animation in the marketplace leads directly to more animation jobs. Which explains why the number of those jobs worldwide is at an all time high.