The International Steeple Chase

As summer ends, the global box office keeps rolling.

... Pixar/Disney's "Toy Story 3 in 3D is winding down its overseas run after 12 frames offshore with a $7.4 million weekend at 4,601 venues in 44 markets for a whopping foreign cume of $621.4 million, making the animation title the eleventh biggest overseas grosser ever. Worldwide gross is $1.030 billion. ...

After more than three months on the foreign circuit, DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek Forever After" in 3D became the biggest offshore grosser of the four-title animation franchise -- surpassing "Shrek 2's" $478.5 million foreign gross total in compiled in 2004 -- with $480.7 million in international box office via Paramount. Latest weekend's take was $4.7 million from 2,661 venues in 61 markets. ...

Fox's "Avatar: Special Edition" has elicited $10.3 million in 11 days overseas business, which, when added to the humongous overseas gross of the director James Cameron's original issue, brings total foreign business to $2.009 billion for the title. Opening in seven territories, "Special Edition" on the weekend overall drew $3.8 million from 1,981 screens in 20 territories.

[Internationally], Universal's "Despicable Me" [totals] $74.1 million ...

There seems to be a worldwide appetite for the animation, wouldn't you say?

In fact, the market for quality animated features appears to be growing. The third Shrek sequel paced the second Toy Story sequel in lands beyond our shores. It was only stateside that it under-performed relative to its older siblings.