The Hollywood Reporter tells of How to Train Your Dragon's overseas launch.
DreamWorks Animation's "How To Train Your Dragon" opened No. 4 on the weekend via Paramount in Russia, Romania and the Ukraine for a take of $8.1 million from a 698 locales.
The 3D animation about a Viking dragon hunter turned dragon owner drew $7.5 million from 600 screens in Russia, which Paramount says is 25% more than the comparable opening figure for Pixar/Disney's "Up" and 50% more than the opening gross of Pixar/Disney's "WALL-E ." ...
A few hot foreign markets, of course, are not overwhelming predictors of worldwide box office success. But they're certainly better than the reverse, wouldn't you say?
Meanwhile, Mr. Burton's Alice continues to thrive.
... "Alice in Wonderland" cruised to its third consecutive No. 1 round overseas, rounding up $47 million from 6,687 screens in 49 territories.
Foreign take so far for director Tim Burton's re-imagining of the Lewis Carroll classic stands at $300 million, of which $216 million or 72% derives from the 3D venues playing the film. Worldwide, "Alice" has grossed $565.8 million to date.
Think about that. Almost 3/4 of the turnstile take is from stereo venues. No wonder the conglomerates are falling all over themselves to retrofit dimensional viewing to their 2-D backlogs. (Sort of like when studios retooled silent movies with music, sound effects and fresh-filmed talking sequences in 1928 and 1929.)
Corporate and human behavior seldom changes. You dangle a big enough carrot out there, and some entity or other will go charging after it. And those kinds of box office numbers are too mouth-watering for the Big Boys to resist ....
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A few hot foreign markets, of course, are not overwhelming predictors of worldwide box office success. But they're certainly better than the reverse, wouldn't you say?
Not necessarily: Much of last year's collective gasps over Ice Age 3's WW box office while Monsters vs. Aliens didn't take hold overseas didn't take into account that lovable animals translated into France and Germany better than pokes at 50's US conservatism or sci-fi pop-culture.
We'll never know whether that made IA3 a better movie than MvA, just with more visual humor, they didn't have to translate as many jokes for foreigners.
The same rule likely applies as much to dragons as to squirrels.
Think about that. Almost 3/4 of the turnstile take is from stereo venues.
Wow...Uh, IIRC, don't we have the Dee industry today because nobody went to see Polar Express and Chicken Little in the 2-D theaters?
It's only in the last couple years that we've gotten it for live-action movies at all.
The russians (as well as chinese) are notorious for pirating movies. I expect dvd copies of HTTYD will be available here even before the movie starts showing in theaters in the US.
So, the question is, what is the rationale behind premiering the movie in Russia a week before it does in the US?!?
nos
I've already got one (seriously!).
post your name so we where to send the FBI - jerkoff
Post your name so I can teach you how to write a sentence.
"Post your name so I can teach you how to write a sentence"
Good defense for piracy...
Seriously, dont buy pirated DVDs man, cmon.
Some of us actually barely make a living making these movies. Dont steal from us.
I agree. Go on Twitter, on Youtube, and the thieving pirates are there. I make a point of copying their address and sending them to the MPAA. Some jerk pirate in Missouri got arrested and heavily fined last month for "sticking it to the man". Hope he rots in jail.
"I've already got one (seriously!)"
Are we supposed to be impressed that your a thief?
Steve how bout relinquishing this guys IP address and ISP to us.
Sorry that this is off-topic, but my Google Chrome is calling Cartoon Brew a malware site. Anybody else experiencing this?
Firefox tells me the same thing.
Yep, I got the same problem with cartonnbrew on firefox.
How to train your dragon is 100% fresh on RT! General audiences pay attention when a movie gets extraordinary reviews. I hope that it will have a good opening.
Cartoon Brew is considered malware because of Amid is now turning into Charles Z and dragging Cartoon Brew along with him.
the cartoon brew site has been down since Saturday. some virus or something. definitely avoid it till you know its cleaned up.
"How to train your dragon is 100% fresh on RT! General audiences pay attention when a movie gets extraordinary reviews."
No, unfortunately they don't. Bolt was also at 100% after 15 reviews, ended at 85%, and still only pulled in $114 mil.
Reviews matter the most for movies targeted at audiences over 25. The 25 and under crowd generally ignores reviews. I still hope Dragon does well and I'm excited for the good reviews because it means that it is a good movie, but good reviews does not a box office make.
I know this was posted on a different thread, but I just heard the radio advertisement for Dreamwork's Dragons. Really? Dreamwork's Dragons? What's wrong with the actual title? Doesn't roll off the tongue well? Takes to long to fit in a radio spot?
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