INTERNATIONAL NUMBERS: Rango Is Now King

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.

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).