Weekly International Box Office May 6 - 8

The latest in Universal’s money-spinning franchise took an excellent $87.8m from 7,363 screens at a strong average of $11,649 after an international surge last weekend.

This weekend Fast And Furious 5 should overtake Fast And Furious ($208m) as the best international performer in the franchise.

Paramount’s action-adventure Thor slipped to second, making $45m from a week-high 11,242 screens in 57 territories. The film’s week-on-week profit slipped 50% and it has now opened in all major territories other than Japan. Still, a haul of $176m is a very decent showing.

The top two are both approaching their fourth weekend.

Despite dropping 50% in week-on-week box office Fox’s Rio maintained its impressive five-week run in the top 3, making $15.9m from 8,698 screens in a week-high 67 territories.

Carlos Saldanha’s hit is now the biggest international grosser released this year on $292.2mm, having overtaken The King’s Speech ($285.5m) last weekend. However, the film’s low screen average of $1,827 should result in the film’s steady decline from here.

Fox’s drama Water For Elephants improved by 131%, moving from eighth to fourth after a $10.6m haul, while Shenghai East’s The Lost Bladesman dropped only one spot in fifth, taking $6.3m at a week-high average of $12,169.

Sony’s action-sci-fi Priest, which sees a gradual rollout, was the week’s highest new entry grossing $5.6m in seventh.

Summit’s comedy Something Borrowed debuted in ninth on $3.6m from seven territories and was closely followed by Toho’s mountain-rescue drama opener Peak –The Rescuers, which made $3.3m in its local market, and eleventh-placed haunted-house debut Haunted, India’s first stereoscopic 3D -  which took $3.2m.

Sony’s thriller Hanna re-entered the chart in 12th after decent showings in Russia and the UK (the film has a staggered summer release), while CJ Entertainment’s family-based drama Sunny was the only other top 20 opener, taking a local-best $2.4m in South Korea.