International Top Five - Number One is Easy for Rider
February 22, 2007
Ghost Rider debuted in first place internationally, which is even more impressive when you think about it as super hero movies tend to not do so well internationally. During its debut the film managed $16.60 million on 1748 screens in 26 markets while nearly cracking the $10,000 per screen average. The film had first place openings in 21 of those 26 of markets including $3.67 million on 401 screens in Russia, $3.12 million on 415 screens in Spain, $2.10 million on 403 screens in Mexico, $1.92 million on 208 screens in Australia, and $1.5 million on 120 in Taiwan. It's a little early to given predictions about the film's final box office, but this was a great start and if it can duplicate its run next week when it opens in France, Germany, and other markets it will be on track to top $100 million internationally and may even reach $200 million worldwide. There's no official, official word that a sequel has been given the go-ahead, but the evidence suggests that is a mere formality now.
Night at the Museum again slipped to second place, but like last time, it had a milestone to celebrate. This time around the film was able to reach $250 million internationally after adding $14.30 million on 4288 screens in 46 markets for a total of $250.37 million. The film opened in first place in Hong Kong with $1.6 million on just 46 screens, but failed to make much of an impact in neighboring China with just $1 million on 600. It also opened in a couple midlevel European markets scoring first place in Belgium with $754,000 on 85 screens over the weekend and $892,000 in total while in Holland it opened with $492,000 on 100 screens over the weekend and $519,000 in total. The film has yet to open in Israel and Japan and will certainly cross $500 million worldwide before it does.
The first of two films from France that managed a place in the top five was Taxi 4, or T4xi as is it sometimes known. Yes, this is the fourth film in the French franchise that was remade here as Taxi, but it goes without saying that these are much higher quality. Over the weekend the film pulled in $14.13 million on 943 screens including a first place debut in France and a second place debuts in Belgium and Switzerland. France with obviously the biggest market pulling in $13.69 million on 867 screens, but managed $737,000 on 56 and $275,000 on 20 in the other two.
Fourth place also went to a home grown hit as Hot Fuzz debuted in first place in its native U.K. with an incredible $11.54 million on 427 screens. This is close to the $12.27 million Shuan of the Dead made there in total back in 2004. It also solidifies Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost's reputation of premiere talents in the action / comedy genre.
The second French on this week's chart was La Vie En Rose with $9.81 million on 700 screens. The film played in the same three markets as the previous French film earning second place in France with $9.34 million on 661 screens, fourth place in Belgium with $292,000 on 25, and fifth place in Switzerland with $172,000 on 14. It's very hard for a local film to make the top five on the international charts as it usually takes a very wide release to make it that far up the charts, but to have two films from the same country do it on the same weekend is nearly unheard of.
Filed under: International Box Office, Night at the Museum, Ghost Rider, Hot Fuzz