Monday, August 02, 2010

The Overseas Thoroughbred Race

A day late with this, but I was running from terminal to terminal in various airports.

"Inception" claimed the No. 1 spot on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing $53.7 million on the weekend from some 7,500 screens in 51 markets. ...

Dipping nearly 40% from its prior weekend's No. 1 gross figure, Pixar/Disney's "Toy Story 3" in 3D dropped to the weekend's No. 2 spot, capturing $39.1 million drawn from 8,213 screens in 48 markets and hoisting the film's accumulated foreign tally to $436.4 million and to $826.1 million worldwide.

The animation threequel finished No. 1 in its second U.K. round with $12.4 million drawn from 868 locations for a market cume of $61.4 million after 14 days, making "Toy Story 3" the third biggest-grossing animation title ever to play the territory. "Toy 3" also continues No. 1 in Japan where the fourth weekend provided $7.1 million from 529 venues for a market total of $61.8 million ....

But of course, it isn't just about TS3. The ogre might be mostly finished with his theatrical run stateside, but there is still life in him elsewhere.

... "Shrek Forever After" in 3D came in at No. 4, exceeding the $400-million overseas gross mark (actual total is $404.2 million) since its May 20 foreign opening. Weekend tally was $19.5 million collected from 6,421 venues in 57 territories.

The fourth "Shrek" animation title distributed by Paramount continues a strong No. 1 in its fourth Brazil round with $3.3 million derived from 527 sites for a market cume of $34.9 million ...

To date, the ogre has collected $640 million around the globe. Not too bad for a "disappointment."

Lastly, there is the new challenger to the animation throne:

Setting records in Latin and South America was "Despicable Me," which gathered $10.5 million overall on the weekend from 1,798 situations in 20 markets, pushing its overseas gross total to $29.2 million. The family-oriented, 3D animation title featuring the voice of Steve Carell recorded Universal's biggest opening weekend ever in Mexico, where it drew an estimated $4.5 million from 497 playdates for a 36% market share.

No 1 debuts were also logged in Argentina ($1.4 million from 93 sites for a $15,054 per-screen average) and in Peru ($1 million from 47 sites for a $21,277 per-screen average), both record market openings for Universal. "Despicable Me" has 42 overseas territories yet to play ...

All in all, world movie-goers have been very kind to the animation industry. They keep going and going to the cartoon movies, and I think our fine entertainment conglomerates have noticed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

in 2007 Katzenberg was saying there would be 5 Shreks. Maybe the global success of 4 has them thinking about it again.

Steve Hulett said...

Remember: Cher's "Farewell Tour" was so successful, she went right on doing the Farewell Tour."

That should tell you all you need to know about final chapters in the Entertainment Biz. They are only final if they don't make any money.

Or someone dies. But sometimes death is a good career move. (Look at Elvis.)

Anonymous said...

The equivalent to the games world was when Square was about to go under, they made a game that they thought was going to be their last: Final Fantasy. It ended up being a smash hit, and now 13 sequels later and a whole host of spinoffs, final isn't so final anymore.

the talking mule said...

Square did close the studio in Hawaii though....

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