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As we discussed yesterday, first a couple of bar bets. Which film grossed more worldwide: Megamind or The King’s Speech? The answer is King’s Speech. Although Megamind grossed more domestically ($148 million to $132 million), the international audience preferred King’s Speech ($226 million to $171 million), giving the Best Picture winner a $40 million edge worldwide. Alas, Little Fockers is the right answer when paired against The Black Swan, although few people would probably place Swan in the top 10 of all movies released in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The sheer size of the international audience is amazing. While the 35 films released between October and December last year grossed $2.8 billion domestically, the same films pulled in $3.9 billion outside North America (and with generally more favorable distribution cuts than are the norm in America).
Films toward the top of the ranking often have international grosses twice or even three times the size of the domestic haul. Even movies like The Tourist or Gulliver’s Travels, which would be considered stinkers here, did enough business overseas to make them players. In fact, Gulliver’s Travels vaulted 10 spots on the ranking list when international box office is factored in (from #22 domestic to #12 worldwide). The Tourist had a similar jump (nine places), and Chronicles of Narnia 3 jumped seven places in the rankings.
OCT-DEC 2010 FILM GROSSES World Domes- Over- Int’l
(millions) wide tic seas Impact
1 Harry Potter 7 952 295 657
2 Tangled 558 198 361
3 Chronicles of Narnia 3 405 104 301 +7**
4 TRON: Legacy 397 172 226 -1
5 King’s Speech 359 132 226 +2
6 Megamind 319 148 171
7 Little Fockers 309 148 160 -2
8 Black Swan 281 106 175 +1
9 The Tourist 268 68 200 +9**
10 True Grit 241 170 72 -6**
11 The Social Network 225 97 128 +2
12 Gulliver’s Travels 216 43 173 +10**
13 Due Date 212 100 111 -2
14 Yogi Bear 200 99 100 -2
15 Red 186 90 96
16 Paranormal Activity 2 177 85 92
17 Jackass 3-D 170 117 53 -9**
18 Unstoppable 168 81 86 -1
19 Saw 3D 136 46 90 +2
20 The Fighter 125 93 32 -6**
21 Life As We Know It 106 53 52 -1
22 Hereafter 104 33 71 +3**
23 Love and Other Drugs 96 32 64 +3**
24 Burlesque 89 39 50 -1
25 Skyline 67 21 46 +5**
26 Secretariat 60 60 1 -7**
27 The Next Three Days 58 21 37 +4**
28 Morning Glory 53 31 22 -1
29 How Do You Know 48 30 17 -1
30 For Colored Girls 38 38 0 -6**
31 Faster 32 23 8 -2
32 Case 39 28 13 15 +1
33 Let Me In 24 12 12 +1
34 My Soul to Take 21 15 6 -2
35 The Warrior’s Way 11 6 5
TOTAL Oct-Dec Films 6737 2820 3916
How to read: The #3 ranked movie, Chronicles of Narnia 3, grossed $405 million worldwide, with $104 million domestic and $304 million overseas. The +7** indicates the strong international performance moved the film’s ranking seven places from #10 domestic-only to #3 worldwide. The two asterisks indicate a particularly significant international impact on box office numbers.
On the flip side, Jackass 3-D was almost repellent to international filmgoers. Comedy often does not export well, especially one without international stars and one with such a, shall we say, uniquely American take. Further, The Fighter and Secretariat did not travel well at all (sports films hardly ever do). Similarly, African-American films are rarely even released outside the home market (for example, For Colored Girls above).
To summarize a few general rules of thumb, most films can match their domestic gross internationally, true hits can double or triple their domestic numbers, and truly narrow films have international numbers that approach zero.
With worldwide gross being so important, we will track the overseas performance of current films each week. Please note there is a lag time in reporting the overseas box office numbers – the important thing to watch is how a given film is moving up or down the worldwide rankings. The first look at the worldwide performance of current films in release will appear tomorrow and every Tuesday.
Check back later today for weekend box office results and an update on year-to-date box office performance.
–Mitch Metcalf
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As we discussed yesterday, first a couple of bar bets. Which film grossed more worldwide: Megamind or The King’s Speech? The answer is King’s Speech. Although Megamind grossed more domestically ($148 million to $132 million), the international audience preferred King’s Speech ($226 million to $171 million), giving the Best Picture winner a $40 million edge worldwide. Alas, Little Fockers is the right answer when paired against The Black Swan, although few people would probably place Swan in the top 10 of all movies released in the fourth quarter of 2010. 
