Overseas box office report from The Hollywood Reporter site...
Halloween got a jump on the foreign theatrical circuit over the weekend as Paranormal Activity 2 claimed the No. 1 box office spot by scaring $22.1 million out of audiences at 2,913 screens in 21 offshore markets.
Director Tod Williams' sequel to 2009's Paranormal Activity, which reportedly grossed more than $92 million overseas, premiered No. 1 in at least four key markets, notably in the U.K., where the weekend tally was $6.3 million from 392 locations -- which distributor Paramount Pictures said outperformed the opening market tally of the horror original by as much as 103%.
Paranormal 2, which also opened No. 1 on the weekend in the U.S. and Canada, drew first-place rankings in Australia ($2.7 million from 179 spots), Mexico ($1.9 million from 450 screens) and Russia ($1.8 million from 360 locations).
Paramount also said the sequel outdrew the opening box office of the original -- directed by Oren Peli, who co-produced and co-scripted Paranormal 2 -- in France ($2.5 million from 199 spots, ranking No. 2), Korea and Spain.
The sequel to the box office phenomenon -- produced for a reported $10,000 and grossing domestically more than 10 times that figure -- continues its rollout offshore over the coming weeks with openings in some 30 foreign markets.
No. 2 on the weekend was Universal's Despicable Me, which had been the foreign circuit's top grosser in the prior stanza. After 16 weeks of overseas playtime, the family-oriented 3D animation title voiced principally by Steve Carell has grossed a total of $198.1 million.
Universal -- which reported its 2010 international box office total exceeded $1 billion on Sunday -- said it expects Despicable to surpass the $200 million offshore gross mark on Monday.
The film's weekend gross was $19.8 million from 4,800 situations in 39 territories. It opened No. 1 in Portugal, Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia, with the U.K. as the top holdover market ($4.3 million from 520 venues for a 10-day total of $12.2 million). Despicable has openings in five territories on tap this week, including Japan and Belgium.
Opening No. 1 in Sweden, Norway and the Ukraine was the weekend's No. 3 title, Sony's The Social Network, which grossed $10 million at 2,110 screens in 25 markets. Overseas cume for director David Fincher's drama starring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stands at $32.2 million.
Fourth was Le Petits Mouchoirs (Little White Lies), the weekend's dominant No. 1 opener in France, grossing an estimated $9.9 million from 750 locations. The EuropaCorp. Distribution release, directed by Guillaume Canet and costarring Marion Cotillard and Francois Cluzet, played the recent Toronto International Film Festival, and is being hailed as a French variation of The Big Chill, director Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 title.
No. 5 was director Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which drew $9.5 million on the weekend from 4,309 sites in 53 markets. Offshore gross total for the Michael Douglas-as-Gordon Gekko vehicle from 20th Century Fox totals $62.18 million.
Warner Bros.' romantic comedy Life As We Know It, costarring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, drew $8.3 million from about 2,500 screens in 22 markets, with a No. 4 Germany opening yielding $2 million from 403 screens. Overseas cume stands at $17.8 million.
With unspectacular openings in the U.K. and Spain, Warner's Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole drew $8.1 million on the weekend at a total of about 5,000 screens in 51 markets. Overseas gross total for director Zack Snyder's animation fantasy stands at $53 million. Openings in France, Korea and Italy are due this week.
Crossing the $100-million overseas gross mark was Sony's Eat Pray Love, which has collected $100.2 million since opening on the foreign circuit on Aug. 12. Latest weekend box office tally for the romantic drama starring Julia Roberts was $7.8 million from 3,320 screens in 67 markets.
Summit International's RED drew an estimated $7.1 million on the weekend from 1,804 situations in 19 markets, with a No. 3 opening in the U.K. looming ($2.7 million from 403 sites). Early cume for the action title -- costarring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren as retired spies back in action -- stands at $15.3 million after two rounds. Openings in 10 territories, including Germany and Australia, are due this week.
Director-actor Ben Affleck's heist vehicle, The Town, drew $5.4 million from 1,900 screens in 31 markets, lifting its overseas cume to $34.1 million. Brazilian-made action title Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad 2) grabbed an estimated $4.7 million from some 300 screens in Brazil only, lifting its market cume to about $33 million over three stanzas.
No. 3 in France was director Luc Besson's Arthur 3: La Guerre des Deux Mondes (Arthur 3: The War of Two Worlds), which collected an estimated $3.9 million from 778 locations and a market cume of $10.2 million over two frames. Constantin Film's Resident Evil: Afterlife" pushed its foreign gross total to $213.5 million via Sony and other distributors thanks to a weekend gross of $3.1 million.
Sony's cop comedy The Other Guys laughed all the way to $2.4 million from 1,355 screens in 40 markets; cume is $37.5 million. Japan is Tom Cruise country and Fox's Knight and Day, the action comedy with Cruise and Cameron Diaz, maintains a strong No. 2 spot in that market ($2.14 million from 578 sites) for a weekend total of $2.3 million from 697 screens in Japan and Italy. Knight and Day's cume totals $176.47 million.
Other international cumes: Warner's Inception, $524.5 million; Sony's Easy A, $5.6 million; Fox's Avatar: Special Edition, $2.021 billion; Summit/Universal/Disney's Step Up 3D, $119 million; Mars Distribution's Des Homes et Des Dieux (Of Gods and Men), $21.2 million over seven rounds in France only; Universal's Charlie St. Cloud, $12 million; Fox's Ramona and Beezus, $424,799 in U.K. only; Pixar/Disney's Toy Story 3, $646.1 million, the eighth most popular release overseas ever; Fox's Vampires Suck, $38.2 million; and Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, $151.6 million.
Also, Touchstone/Disney's You Again, $3.6 million; Universal's Devil, $12.6 million; DreamWorks/Paramount's Dinner for Schmucks, $12.6 million; Universal's Senna, $830,000 in Japan only; Lionsgate's The Switch, $14.4 million; Paramount's The Last Airbender, $184.5 million; and Lionsgate's Alpha and Omega, $5.2 million.
