Ok, ‘The Happening’ is a terrible movie, but taking the number one spot overseas is quite an accomplishment. M. Night Shyamalan’s movie made $32.1 million at 5,714 screens in 88 territories. That’s about $5,600 per screen. ‘The Incredible Hulk’ came in second, but managed to make almost $10,000 per screen at 38 markets.

The $32.1 million comes after Shyamalan’s awful box office result of ‘Lady in the Water’ in 2006. The fantasy only made $30 million overseas during its lifetime. It’s clear Fox’ aggressive marketing campaign paid off. The trailer with falling bodies gave people high hopes for his new thriller. It’s too bad this is one of those ‘the best is in the trailer’ movies and most will leave disappointed.

Europe was leading the ticket sales for ‘The Happening.’ France grossed a good $4.6 million, followed by Spain with $3.8 million. The U.K. brought in $3.4 million and several other countries ended the weekend with around $2 million.

Continue reading It’s Happening around the world, a look at the overseas box office

In a small update from Down Under, we see ‘Sex and the City’ doing great in another English territory. It started with the premiere in the U.K., where it did $4 million the day the movie was released and made another $20 million after that. And now the Australian girls are going crazy for the movie.

‘Sex’ had the highest grossing opening in Australia for a romance ever, just a little under $2 million. Meanwhile, Disney’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ made $470,000 during its opening day. Good, but in line with the somewhat disappointing US box office performance.

‘Sex and the City’ had the second best launch this year, only beat by ‘I am Legend’ with $2.6 million. The numbers might seem low compared to the US, but keep in mind Australia only has 21 million inhabitants. And this was all on a weekday.

Taking a look at the overseas box office, we see ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ doing well in its current territories. But Caspian’s rollout is spanning over two months, which seems old-fashioned for such a big movie.

Paramount released ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Indiana Jones 4′ simultaneous, why can’t Disney do the same? Well, while you can question why it didn’t release in Europe in May, Disney isn’t releasing ‘Prince Caspian’ there in June for a simple reason; the European Soccer Championship. A family movie wouldn’t stand a chance against the big event in Europe and that’s why Disney delayed it until July.

In the couple of territories it’s in, Caspian already took $80 million. But the fantasy will release in most Asian territories this week, with countries like the U.K., France and Germany following in July. A little earlier in the U.K. and France, because Disney probably doesn’t expect them to make the Soccer Championship’s finals — just kidding guys (if you come from one of these countries).

Continue reading Why ‘Prince Caspian’ still didn’t visit Europe, a look at the overseas box office