International - Music to industry ears

Mamma Mia! The Movie's phenomenal run has led to an Indian summer at the box office. Screen's international top 40 chart was up 12.1% year on year, with the Abba musical making another big contribution.

Universal's hit musical notched up another milestone, passing $350m gross since its initial international release in June.

The weekend saw the film achieve number-one launches in Russia, Ukraine and Malaysia. It took $15.6m from 4,152 screens for a cumulative figure of $356.6m.

The musical would still appear to have potential, with another nine territories in which the film has yet to open, including Italy this coming weekend and Japan in late January, 2009.

Uli Edel's The Baader Meinhof Complex was the highest new entry in the chart. The film debuted at fifth position internationally, after its $4.6m second-place opening in Germany, behind Disney's $5.2m opening of its animation Wall.E.

The Baader Meinhof Complex is based on Stefan Aust's bestselling account of the Red Army Faction terrorist organisation in Germany. With Constantin Film distributing, the film took $4.8m from 599 screens for a screen average of $7,991 (see review, p22).

Following a place behind at number six, was the highest new US entry, Paramount's Eagle Eye. Shia LaBeouf stars in the paranoia thriller, which opened top of the North American chart and was released day and date across 1,124 screens in 13 international territories, including Australia, Mexico and Brazil. It took $4.5m for an average of more than $4,000 a screen.

Palme d'Or winner The Class (Entre Les Murs) had its first theatrical releases in its home territory and Switzerland, placing the film at number 12 in this week's chart. Laurent Cantet's Parisian classroom drama took $3.5m from 382 screens, and took the week's second-highest screen average of $9,213.