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May 10, 2011
 

INTERNATIONAL BOX OFFICE NUMBERS: Fast Five and Thor Thrive Overseas

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Written by: Mitch Metcalf
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>Fast Five now challenging Rio for #1 on the January-April international chart.  But the race is on: Thor (the first of many high-grossing international films this summer) is nipping at Fast Five’s heels.   

The table below shows the domestic and international grosses for the Top 25 films (out of the 47 movies released between January and April at over 500 theaters).  Rio remains at #1 with $432 million worldwide, followed closely by Fast Five with a current worldwide total just shy of $400 million.  Thor (with $370 million worldwide already) is also shown on the chart below, although it will mainly appear in the summer chart (for May-August movies) in a few weeks, as well.


To see the Top 25 worldwide chart, click “Read more” below.

JAN-APR 2011 WORLDWIDE FILM GROSSES TOP 25 FILMS            Int’l
 Rank                               ($ MILLIONS)           Impact
LW TW                      Worldwide  Domestic   Overseas   Ratio
 1  1  Rio                    432        140       292*     2.09
 2  2  Fast Five              398        214       185*      .87
       Thor  [May release]    370        194       176       .91
 3  3  Rango                  241        122       119       .97
 4  4  Green Hornet           228         99       130      1.31
 5  5  Just Go with It        213        103       110      1.07
 6  6  Battle: Los Angeles    201         83       118      1.43

 7  7  Gnomeo and Juliet      177         99        78       .79
 8  8  Hop                    170        108        62*      .57
 9  9  No Strings Attached    146         71        75      1.06

11 10  I Am Number Four       144         55        89      1.63

10 11  Limitless              143         85        59       .69 
12 12  Unknown                124         64        60       .94

13 13  Adjustment Bureau      116         63        53       .84
14 14  Justin Bieber: Never    98         73        25       .34
15 15  The Rite                96         33        63      1.91

16 16  Source Code             96         55        41*      .74
18 17  Sucker Punch            89         35        53*     1.52
23 18  Red Riding Hood         87         37        50      1.35
17 19  Paul                    86         37        49      1.31
19 20  Season of the Witch     84         25        59      2.40

22 21  Scre4m                  82         38        44*     1.17 
25 22  Hall Pass               81         45        36       .81
20 23  Big Mommas: Like Father 80         38        43      1.13

21 24  Sanctum                 79         23        56      2.44

27 25  Water for Elephants     78         57        21       .38

TOTAL Jan-Apr Movies         4519       2432      2087*      .86
 (Total of 47 movies)

How to read: From left to right, the first two numbers are a film’s rankings Last Week (LW) and This Week (TW), Worldwide gross (in millions), which is the sum of Estimated Domestic Final and International gross to date. (The two numbers do not always add up to the worldwide number exactly due to rounding.)  The International Impact Ratio indicates relative international performance. The Domestic number is either the actual final gross or the latest ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Ultimate estimate if the movie is still playing. The Overseas number is the actual gross to date, which tends to lag in reporting. An asterisk indicates significant overseas upside to come.  The International Impact Ratio is the film’s Overseas number divided by its Domestic number. 

The worldwide box office ranking now temporarily includes one May release (Thor) for comparison purposes.  
The total numbers at the bottom of the chart show that worldwide box office has crossed the $4.5 billion line, in this, the weakest third of the year.  (The totals do not include Thor, a May release.)  A reminder, we divide the year into thirds (Winter/Spring movies released between January and April, Summer Movies between May and August, and Fall/Holiday movies between September and December).  We will chart the January-April movies through the end of May, when we will start tracking the international audience for the May-August films.      

Check back Wednesday for a look at the mid-week domestic performance of movies currently in release (a combined look at Monday and Tuesday numbers).   


About the Author

Mitch Metcalf
MITCH METCALF has been tracking every US film release of over 500 screens (over 2300 movies and counting) since the storied weekend of May 20, 1994, when Maverick and Beverly Hills Cop 3 inspired countless aficionados to devote their lives to the art of cinema. Prior to that, he studied Politics and Economics at Princeton in order to prepare for his dream of working in television. He has been Head of West Coast Research at ABC, then moved to NBC in 2000 and became Head of Scheduling for 11 years.