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April 5, 2011
 

INTERNATIONAL NUMBERS: Rango Is Now King

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Written by: Mitch Metcalf
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>The worldwide grosses rankings have been updated, and Rango (Paramount) now claims the top spot, passing The Green Hornet (Sony), as expected in last week’s international report.  But we suspect that Rango still has some upside — the overseas number should easily exceed the movie’s domestic number, with $40-50 million more to come from outside North America.  

Further, the overseas number for Battle: Los Angeles (Sony) already exceeds its expected domestic total, and the international number has plenty of room to grow.  Battle, with its emphasis on action and explosions rather than smart and snappy dialogue, is exactly the kind of movie that exports well.  Already jumping from #5 last week to #3 this week, look for it to challenge The Green Hornet in the next few weeks. 

Just Go With It (Sony) and Gnomeo and Juliet (Disney) have just about topped out on their overseas grosses (notice the asterisk has been removed from the overseas number for each movie in the table below).  Their worldwide totals should not change substantially in the coming weeks.

JAN-MAR 2011 FILM GROSSES           ($ millions)
                           Worldwide  Domestic   Overseas   Int’l
 Rank                                 Final       to Date  Impact
LW TW                                 Estimate              Index
 2  1  Rango                  236        128       107*
 1  2  Green Hornet           228         99       130       +2
 5  3  Battle: Los Angeles    185         89        96*      +2
 4  4  Just Go with It        182        106        76       -2

 3  5  Gnomeo and Juliet      171        101        70       -2
 6  6  No Strings Attached    140         71        69       +3

 7  7  I Am Number Four       135         61        74       +4
 8  8  Unknown                126         75        51
 9  9  Adjustment Bureau      111         66        45*      +1
11 10  Limitless               97         83        14*      -4

10 11  Justin Bieber: Never    94         80        14       -4
13 12  The Rite                88         32        56       +9

12 13  Season of the Witch     81         25        56       +13

16 14  Big Mommas: Like Father 79         42        37       +3

14 15  Sanctum                 78         30        48       +8

15 16  Paul                    77         46        31*

17 17  The Dilemma             67         48        18       -3

18 18  Hall Pass               67         48        19       -3
19 19  Lincoln Lawyer          61         60         1*      -7
— 20  Diary Wimpy Kid 2       59         59         0*      -7
 
— 21  Sucker Punch            59         38        20*      -1
21 22  Red Riding Hood         54         39        15*      -3

20 23  The Mechanic            49         32        17       -1

23 24  Mars Needs Moms         44         28        16*   

22 25  The Roommate            41         41         0       -7

24 26  The Eagle               33         21        11       +1

25 27  Beastly                 25         25         0       -2
26 28  Country Strong          20         20         0
27 29  Drive Angry 3D          18         13         5
28 30  Take Me Home Tonight     6          6         0

TOTAL Jan-Mar Movies         2710       1614      1097*


How to read: Last week’s (LW) #1 movie, The Green Hornet, is now ranked #2 this week (TW).  The movie has an estimated $228 million worldwide gross, with a $99 million final domestic and $130 million overseas gross to date.  (The two numbers do not always add up to the worldwide number exactly due to rounding.)  The +2 International Impact Index indicates that strong international performance moved the film’s ranking up 2 places from #4 domestic-only to #2 worldwide.
The Domestic number is either the actual final gross or the 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 worldwide box office ranking now includes movies released in 2011 through March 25.  (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Fox) and Sucker Punch (Warner Bros) have been added to the ranking.)   Sucker Punch already has a decent overseas tally (again, action — like it or not — is one of the few sure-thing exports in any industry from this country).  Wimpy Kid 2 has no reported overseas box office at this time, and won’t see more than a few million dollars eventually anyway.  

Limitless (Relativity) and Lincoln Lawyer (Lionsgate) are not gaining much traction overseas.  Being released by non-major studios is not helping their cause.  Major studios usually have better international distribution agreements, and their films tend to do better overseas than others.      

The total numbers at the bottom of the chart show that international box office is still significantly lower than the domestic total this time of year but the difference is decreasing with each passing week.  This chart will continue to expand through April.  Basically, 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).    


Check back tomorrow 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.