‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ is not only doing good numbers domestically, it’s doing even better outside the U.S. Dr. Henry Jones made an estimated $143 million internationally. Added to the $126 million reported in the U.S., the adventurer has already made $269 million worldwide. Something for which you can take your hat off, I’d say. It is the sixth best international opening of all time. Here is the are the numbers for the international top 5 during the four day period:

United Kingdom: $21.5 million
Germany: $12.6 million
Spain: $11.7 million
South Korea: $10 million
Australia: $9 million

I initially doubted Indy’s box office power and buzz, but the numbers prove he can still do it. The $143 million was taken from 12,000 screens in more than 8,300 locations and 56 markets. Another well deployed distribution by Paramount Pictures International, after last month’s ‘Iron Man.’

Was Universal expecting ‘Iron Man’ to be this big? I don’t know. They probably didn’t think they were getting the second prize by buying the ‘The Incredible Hulk’ distribution rights, while Paramount bought ‘Iron Man.’ But now Universal is using ‘Iron Man’ to sell ‘The Incredible Hulk’ to their audience. People who are currently calling MovieTickets.com for ‘Iron Man’ tickets are receiving a paid advertising message.

The computer will ask the caller, “Like Tony Stark? See more of him in ‘Incredible Hulk’ in theaters on June 13. Press 1 to get a text message reminder…” If they do, they will get a SMS the day before ‘The Incredible Hulk’ opens. “We’ve done audio ads for ticketing sites in the past. This was a really cool opportunity to contextually target and serve the ad to a really relevant, hyper-targeted audience, and have the ability to re-target them,” Megan Crowell of advertising agency Ignited said.

Apptera, the company that implemented the message, said the campaign saw a 3% sign-up rate. “What the studio wants to do is get a big opening weekend, to have these time bombs, people carrying cell phones that start buzzing on opening day,” they said. So there you have it. Hollywood’s new way to target you, cell phones. Last month we saw a similar idea with the new Batman movie. Some people got a call about ‘The Dark Knight,’ with some questions about Harvey Dent.

Paramount Pictures International will begin to roll out ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ worldwide today. The movie is having its premiere in France, Belgium and Switzerland today, with the rest of the world following during the weekend. Dr. Henry Jones is only skipping Japan, but Paramount did the same with ‘Iron Man’ last month. Although ‘Iron Man’ will be released in Japan at the end of September, while ‘Indiana Jones 4′ will be there next month.

Paramount will ship an impressive 12,000 prints of the movie into 60 markets, with Germany and the UK both getting more than 1,000 prints. In the US, about 4,000 theaters are showing Spielberg’s blockbuster during the Memorial Day weekend. And as you would expect, there’s not much else releasing this weekend. No studio dared to put anything up to the most anticipated movie of the last years. Or should I say no studio was stupid enough? But will Indy beat ‘Spider-man 3′?