Batman rules.
The box office Batfrenzy swooped into international markets as "The Dark Knight" launched brightly with $40 million at 4,500 playdates in only 20 territories.
Meanwhile, Universal's "Mamma Mia!" continued singing sweetly overseas with $26.8 million at 2,407 in 21 markets, turning in the best per-screen average among major pics with $11,134 ... "Mamma Mia!" has cumed $72.6 million internationally in 11 days with 35 markets left. The feel-good musical looks likely to remain a counterprogramming player along the lines of "Sex and the City," which has topped $225 million offshore ...
On the animation front, the two big performers stateside are also twirling the turnstiles in foreign markets:
Par's "Kung Fu Panda" and Disney's "Wall-E" -- also showed plenty of traction with "Kung Fu Panda" putting its paws on $27.8 million at 6,525 in 58 markets as holdovers contributed the lion's share. "Panda" has dug up solid biz everywhere, led by $41 million in the U.K. and $26 million in South Korea, for a foreign cume of $270 million to trail only "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," with $448.4 million, among 2008 releases ...
Doing some rough addition, the Panda pic is closing in on half a billion in worldwide theatrical grosses. Not bad at all.
"Wall-E" scooped up $14.4 million at 3,950 in 20 markets, mostly from an impressive $8.8 million launch in the U.K., where it was edged by "Mamma Mia!" The Pixar toon's still early in its foreign run with $53 million in overseas coin ...
Which animated feature gets bragging rights for top worldwide grosser of the year? Too early to tell.
Me, I'm waiting to see how Space Chimps does in foreign markets before rendering any final judgments.
Posts
3 comments:
Heath Ledger totally stole the show. No easy task with people like Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckard and Christian Bale sharing the bill...
R.
Ledger's performance was certainly very good, but the hype surrounding it is a bit overheated. Had he not tragically died, I doubt we'd be hearing about Oscar nominations and such.
... Had he not tragically died, I doubt we'd be hearing about Oscar nominations and such.
Couldn't disagree more. I couldn't have cared less about Ledger before(of course his death was sad, but I wasn't a fan). The hype was the usual breathless stuff so when I went to see it I was skeptical.
He was riveting. The entire film was probably the most watchable downer ever with a lot of good acting, but the Joker was every bit as good as advertised. Totally deserving of a nomination, and not because he's dead.
Post a Comment