Gromit Goes Global

October 12, 2005

The stop motion animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit not only won the domestic box office race, but it won the international one as well. Overall it earned $9.23 million on 1,895 screens in 13 markets for a $11.4 million running tally. Most of that came from the U.K., where the film earned $5 million from 487 previews. It opened in second place in Mexico with $1.25 million on 353 screens, third place in Spain with $1.01 million on 225 screens and in Brazil it made $361,000 (placing unknown). Holdovers include $740,000 in Australia and $176,000 in New Zealand.

With a new number one, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was pushed into second place with $7.7 million over the weekend and $233 million during its run. It's coasting on holdovers, and has been for a while now; however, it still finished in first place in Japan with $2.4 million on 363 screens and in New Zealand with $252,000 on 71. Meanwhile, it dropped to second in Italy with $2.0 million 436 screens.

The 40-Year Old Virgin remained in third place with $6.6 million on 1,775 screens in 22 markets for an international box office of $27.7 million so far. Quite frankly, the film is doing better business internationally than I thought it would have; after all, comedies like this tend to have real trouble connecting with audiences outside of English-speaking markets. Highlights this weekend include a first place debut in Australia with $1.61 million on 243 screens and a second place sophomore stint in Germany with $1.35 million on 523 screens. But the film's best market so far is the U.K. where it has made $12.6 million in 6 weeks, including $321,000 this past weekend.

For the first time in its run, The Brothers Grimm made it into the top five with $5.4 million in 16 markets. It finished first in France with $2.4 million on 458 screens (more than one quarter of the whole market) and it also earned top spot in Germany with $1.5 million on 416 screens. So far the film has made $22.0 million internationally, the largest chunk of that coming from Spain with $5.45 million in five weeks.

Rounding out the top five was Torrente 3: El Protector; the Spanish film topped its home market for the second weekend in a row. Over the weekend the film added $4.49 million on 465 screens to its impressive $15.43 million total in its native market.

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Filed under: International Box Office, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The 40 Year-old Virgin, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Brothers Grimm