Weekly International Box Office - July 23 - 25

Disney’s Toy Story 3 leapt into top spot on the international chart after taking $63.5m over the July 23-25 weekend. The Pixar animated sequel played on 7,612 screens in 46 territories, and overtook Shrek Forever After (finally showing signs of decline in its 10th week) as the highest-grossing film currently playing in the top 40. With a cumulative international box office of $366.8m Toy Story 3 is the second most lucrative film released in 2010. The third film in the franchise is already the 36^th best performing film of all time and is fast on the heels of The Matrix Reloaded and The Da Vinci Code.

Toy Story 3 performed particularly well in UK where it took $32.8m (including four preview days) at a per screen average of $58,413. That new record for a 2010 UK opener accounted for more than half of the film’s total international box office last weekend. Toy Story 3 also fared well on its debut weekend in Spain where it made $5.4m from 719 screens. The film opens in Germany this weekend, South Korea on August 5 and in Scandinavia on the last weekend in August.

Playing in 10 fewer territories than Toy Story 3, Warner Bros.’ Inception had a strong second week, taking $56.8m from 5,177 screens. Christopher Nolan’s thriller improved its performance by 257% on last weekend and its print average of $10,967 was the highest of any top 40 film playing in more than one territory. From 26 new openings, the film hit top spot in Japan ($7.9m from 2 days), France ($8m from 5 days) and Russia & CIS ($7.1m from 4 days) among others.

Inception also continued its strong IMAX performance, internationally generating more than $1.8 million from 52 screens, bringing the overseas IMAX total to approximately $3.2 million. Inception is still to open in key territories Germany and Switzerland (July 29), Brazil and Spain (Aug 6) and Italy (Sept 24).  

Entering at number five, Huayi Bros’ Chinese production Aftershock was the highest new entry on the international chart. Feng Xiaogang’s disaster drama took $24.1m from 2567 screens in five territories, setting a first-weekend record in mainland China. Aftershock also marks the first foreign-language film released in the IMAX format. Aftershock is the only non-US film in the top 8 international performers.

Eros’ Katta Meetha debuted in 10th position, taking $6.7m from 894 screens in 16 territories. Priyadarshan directs while Bollywood star Akshay Kumar produces and stars. Katta Meetha is a satirical remake of a 1988 Malaysian film also directed by Priyadarshan.

The third new entry in this week’s top 20 international films was Sony’s Salt, which made $5.3m from 730 screens in 17 territories. Salt has yet to open in most major international territories so there is still time for the film to build a decent tally. Sony must be hoping that one of their biggest titles of the year can eventually generate similar figures to Angelina Jolie’s two previous action outings which both grossed over $30m on their international debuts. In June 2008 Wanted took $32.3m from 22 territories and in June 2005 Mr & Mrs Smith made $34.3m.