Buzz-producing awards contender The Social Network has its first international opening this weekend, though it is not likely to be among the handful of US studio films dividing up most of the spoils at the international box office.

Director David Fincher’s drama about the birth of Facebook opened through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland on Thursday [7], a week after making a promising start at the US box office. The film also arrives this weekend in Jamaica and Austria; most other major territory openings come over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile at least four holdover releases will be vying this weekend to take over from Resident Evil: Afterlife - which as of Sunday [3] had taken $149.4m from the territories where it is handled by SPRI and $179.6m overall internationally - as the international marketplace’s top performer.

Fox International’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps opened in Spain and the UK on Thursday and will be hoping to add a wad of cash to the $23.6m it had taken from 15 international markets as of Monday [4].

SPRI’s Eat Pray Love, with $39.7m so far from 35 international markets, opened in Australia and Russia on Thursday and a number of smaller markets over the rest of the weekend.

Universal/UPI’s Despicable Me opened in France on Wednesday [6] and reaches Spain on Friday [8]. As of Thursday, the animated comedy had amassed $119.6m internationally.

Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga’Hoole, from Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI), lands in Mexico and Brazil on Friday. The animated adventure’s international total as of Monday was $11.2m.

A number of other studio films have scattered openings over the weekend.

Fox International’s Knight & Day, which up to Monday had earned $154.2m internationally, could add significantly to that total by opening in Italy on Friday and Japan on Saturday [9].

The studio’s Hot Tub Time Machine, with $13.1m (including non-Fox territories) so far, opened in France on Wednesday. And local production Me and My Umbrella opens through Fox in Brazil on Friday.

Universal/UPI’s Charlie St Cloud, with $4.7m internationally to date, landed in Germany on Thursday and arrives in the UK on Friday.

Summit’s Letters to Juliet, with $22.5m to date internationally, opens in Spain and South Korea and the company’s The Runaways arrives in Brazil.

WBPI’s The Town shows up in Italy on Friday, having grossed $13.1m internationally as of Monday.

You Again ($2.9m so far internationally), from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International (WDSMPI), comes to Spain on Friday, and the studio opens Summit’s Step Up 3D in Mexico on the same day. Step Up 3D (which has so far grossed $108.4m internationally) also opens this weekend, through an independent, in Italy.

WDSMPI also reported international totals to date of $148.6m for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and $643m for Toy Story 3.

SPRI’s Takers (with $701,651 internationally to date) arrives in Mexico on Friday.

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