'Button' sews up foreign box office
'Curious' pic stands solid in major markets
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In the first major offshore expansion, Warner Bros. saw solid “Button” launches in a quartet of major markets -- France with $5.1 million, Spain with $5 million, Japan with $3.6 million and the U.K. with $3.2 million.
Most notably, “Button” held impressively in its second German frame with $3.9 million, off only 16% from its debut. The Brad Pitt-Cate Blanchett epic has cumed $72.5 million internationally but -- due to its high pricetag and respectable rather than stellar domestic performance -- will be closely watched for traction outside the United States in the coming weeks.
“Button” opens next weekend in Italy and South Korea. It’s totaled $120 million domestically in seven weeks for Paramount, which co-financed the project with Warner Bros.
“Button,” with a decent $6,072 per-location average, nearly matched the combined grosses of the next four pics -- “Valkyrie,” “Bolt,” “Revolutionary Road” and “Bride Wars.” And it scored the second biggest weekend take of 2009 at the foreign box office, trailing only the $33 million for “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” during the Jan. 2-4 frame.
MGM/UA’s “Valkyrie,” which has led the international box for the past two frames, headed the rest of the pack with $11.2 million at 4,267 in 37 markets. The Tom Cruise WWII thriller, handled by Fox in most foreign markets, has gone past $56 million internationally.
Disney’s “Bolt” fetched $9.6 million at 3,150 in 31 territories, including a $3.9 million launch in France, for a $111 million foreign cume midway through its international run.
Paramount’s “Revolutionary Road,” with three Oscar noms, took in $6.3 million at 2,699 in 47 territories in holdover biz to lift its foreign cume to $37 million -- already double its domestic total.
Three other awards contenders remained in relatively small release -- Disney/Miramax’s “Doubt” with $2.5 million at 600; Universal’s “Frost/Nixon” with $1.2 million at 700 in 22 markets including an Italian launch of $410,000 at 126 and a German opening of $260,000 off 124; and “Milk” with $1 million at 525 in 15 markets. “Doubt” has totaled $7.2 million internationally, followed by “Milk” with $6.5 million and “Frost/Nixon” with $5.7 million.
“Gran Torino” stayed a solid player in Australia as it won with $1 million in its third weekend, topping “Slumdog Millionaire.”
Fox’s “Bride Wars” charmed its way to $6.1 million at 2,539 in 43 markets for a $32.1 million international cume. It opened second in Germany with $1.7 million -- less than half the “Button” launch.
The frame also saw Sony’s “Seven Pounds” weigh in with $5.4 million at 2,600 in 43 markets to lift its foreign take to $79.4 million while Warner’s “Yes Man” remained a positive overseas with $5.2 million at 2,900 in 55 territories for an international total of $107.3 million. Both “Pounds” and “Yes Man” have topped their domestic totals by more than $10 million.
Sony’s “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” scared up $5.2 million at 1,520 in 43 markets to push its early foreign cume to $16.6 million.
Though Disney declined to release numbers, “Bolt” fetched an estimated $3 million in Brit previews, which won’t be counted until its launch next weekend. Its take would have competed for the top slot with “Benjamin Button,” the day-and-date launch of “He’s Just Not That Into You” and the fourth frame of awards season favorite “Slumdog Millionaire.” “Slumdog” has cumed an impressive $23 million in a month in the U.K.
U posted a first-place $1.3 million launch for “Coraline” in Mexico, including a record $400,000 at 60 3-D venues. “Pink Panther 2” took in $375,000 at 139 in Central America, Chile and Malaysia and will hit its first major markets such as the U.K. next weekend.
