The Summertime Derby in Foreign Lands

Our friends at the Reporter keep us abreast of the box office scorecard around the globe:

DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek Forever After" in 3D supplanted the latest "Twilight Saga" installment as the top-grossing weekend title on the foreign theatrical circuit, snaring $52.2 million from 8,063 locations in 57 markets.

The weekend was the first to find "Shrek" occupying the No. 1 spot. Opening on the foreign circuit on May 20, the animation film has been pursuing since then a graduated overseas rollout via Paramount. "Shrek's" foreign gross total now stands at $292.5 million ....

Shrek 4's performance abroad is $60 million more than its domestic performance, and it's still rolling out and rolling along. Make's me wonder if the picture ends up like Ice Age 3: okay grosses stateside ($234 million to date), huge numbers everyplace else ....

Then there's the other two animated features now in general release ...

Third on the weekend was "Toy Story 3" in 3D, which captured $32.9 million from 3,452 screens in 41 markets. After playing about 60% of the foreign territories, the Pixar/Disney animation title has rolled up a cume of $267.5 million, making it the tenth biggest Disney hit overseas. Worldwide, "Toy Story 3" has grossed $630.2 million, the tenth biggest-grossing animation title ever released. ...

Still in early international release, Universal's "Despicable Me" drew $4 million on the weekend from 503 locations in seven territories. ...

Too soon to know how DM ends up performing, but my estimate for TS3 is pretty straightforward. It's got a ways to run here in the States, and 35-40% more of its overseas total to accumulate, so we're looking at a worldwide gross of $800-$900 million before all the theatrical runs tail off. This will put it firmly in the last Ice Age 3's territory.