Sunday, August 08, 2010

The Derby Beyond Our Shores

Animation keeps on gobbling up currency in foreign venues.

... According to studio figures, the big six Hollywood majors -- 20 Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Sony -- have collected combined foreign boxoffice of $7.926 billion, 32% ahead of last year's January through July figure of $5.978 billion. ...

"Shrek Forever After" in 3D is Paramount's top-grossing title through July, and is still playing. Latest stanza overseas generated $10 million from 5,472 venues in 57 markets, shoving the DreamWorks Animation title's foreign cume to $426.7 million.

Meanwhile, the weekend's No. 2 title, Pixar/Disney's "Toy Story 3" in 3D, drew $29.4 million in its latest round overseas at 7,928 screens in 49 markets, pushing its total foreign gross to close to the half-billion dollar mark ($498.7 million). It is now the third largest-grossing animation title ever released on the foreign circuit. ...

Opening in four markets, including a No. 1 bow in Brazil ($3.2 million from 278 locations, distributor Universal's biggest market debut ever), "Despicable Me" took in an estimated $9.8 million overall from 2,170 venues in 24 territories. With 40 markets yet to play, including key openings in Australia and Europe, Universal's family-oriented, 3D animation title featuring the voice of Steve Carell has collected a foreign gross so far of $43.5 million. The film opens in Venezuela this week. ...

So, for those of you scoring at home:

The always disappointing Shrek Forever After has chalked up $663,250,000 in worldwide grosses ...

Toy Story 3 has collected $895 million (and counting) ...

And Despicable Me has tallied $252.9 million, with a poop-load of foreign venues yet to come.

The way this is unfolding, I see a a number of virgin companies jumping into the feature animation business, including effects houses looking to expand their profit margins. That big, shiny brass ring is just too tempting, and the one thing that Hollywood execs do real well is jump into "hot markets."

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