'Dragon Emperor' fires up overseas
'Mummy' sequel brings in $56.1 million
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The third "Mummy" pic opened in first place in 16 of 22 new markets and notched an impressive $8,693 per location, thanks mostly to solid launches in the U.K. with $9.2 million and Germany with $6.6 million.
The sequel took in more than the combined grosses of its nearest rivals, "The Dark Knight" with $35.1 million at 7,000 and "Wall-E" with $18.1 million at 3,177.
Universal’s "Mamma Mia!," meanwhile, remained a potent player with $14.7 million at 2,400 in two dozen markets as the pic’s foreign cume hit a stunning $173.4 million, far above the studio’s initial expectations as counterprogrammer. The feel-good musical turned up hefty holdover biz with a decline of just 11% from the previous frame.
U.K. audiences have been staging a love affair with "Mamma" as the pic posted a tuneful fifth frame of $5.9 million, off just 11% for a Brit cume of $77.8 million. That nearly matches "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" as the top 2008 title in Blighty and is about $14 million short of going past "Jurassic Park" as Universal’s top performer of all time in the U.K.
German biz declined only 10% in the pic’s fourth frame and has hit $20.7 million. "Mamma’s" holdover strength plus upcoming openings should propel the musical well past $200 million overseas. U reported strong previews in Spain, where it opens this weekend.
With the top four pics totaling nearly $125 million, overall biz stayed typically healthy for an August frame as studios opted to stick mostly with tentpoles. Sony launched "Pineapple Express" only in Australia, where it grossed a moderate $1.1 million, and will wait until the fall to go into other major markets.
"Dragon Emperor" continued to show significantly more traction abroad than Stateside with solid perfs in an array of markets including Taiwan with $3.6 million — the top launch of 2008 and U’s best opening ever there. The actioner’s foreign cume has now doubled the domestic total and appears to have plenty of gas in the tank as it heads toward the same B.O. territory as the previous two "Mummy" pics, both of which topped $230 million internationally.
"Dragon Emperor" launches next weekend in Japan and will debut in China after the Olympics.
"The Dark Knight" continued to bring plenty of sunshine to the foreign box office — even though its international cume of $263 million lags the domestic total by about $180 million. Best numbers came from its third U.K. frame with $9.2 million, where it’s become the top superhero title of all time, and the South Korean launch of $6.9 million.
"Knight" is far ahead of the offshore takes for the five previous Batpics (with "Batman Begins" leading the rest with $166 million). Biz should remain solid to spectacular with launches over the next frame in France, Russia and Spain.
Family faves "Wall-E" and "Kung Fu Panda" remained reliable draws for the younger set. "Wall-E" has hit $121 million overseas while "Panda" has put its paws on $347.5 million internationally — the second highest total after "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at $461 million.
One of the few soft spots in overseas biz continues to be Fox’s "X-Files: I Want to Believe" with $5.7 million at 4,000 in 48 markets for a modest cume of $31.4 million. By comparison, its eco-thriller "The Happening" has turned in a decent foreign performance with a total topping $94 million.
