Weekly Foreign Numbers

With Mr. Hulett away for the next week, Jeff and I will strive to keep his regular posts running, while adding a few of our own flavor. We hope you understand Steve H's are big shoes to fill, and show kindness to our attempts. Having said that ..

Sony Pictures Animation Smurfed the foreign weekend numbers for a seventh weekend in a row.

This is the seventh consecutive stanza that the Sony Animation coproduction finished on top overseas. No other title this year has won the top foreign box office spot more often than has The Smurfs.

Since it opened foreign on July 27, the 3D live action/computer animation hybrid about lovable blue creatures in New York City has grossed $364.4 million – more than 2.6 times its domestic tally -- enabling its worldwide box office to exceed the half-billion mark ($502.8 million).

We firmly believe box office performance drives behavior at the upper floors and executive offices of our fine entertainment congloms. The better a film does, the higher the chance of a sequel or genre spree. Seeing as nine of the top ten films of this year have all outperformed in ticket sales outside our grand old USA, its important to factor foreign ticket sales when calculating budgets for upcoming features.

As if *that* is an easy process ..