November
30-December 2, 2001
Around
the World Round Up
by Kenan
Bresnan
Harry
Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone have
now stolen one of Titanic's records.
That's not all either. It has broken a
record in every single country it's
opened in to date and continues to hold
extremely well. Is the boy wonder a
knockin' on Titanic's door?
The
Chris Columbus fantasy took an earth
shattering 12.4 million tickets, amassing
to $60.9 million, from 6,574 prints on
more than 7,000 screens in 31 countries.
That crushed the benchmark set by Titanic
in 1998, when it racked up $50.7
million over the Jan. 23-25 frame in 32
territories. Although Titanic was
on only 4,776 screens, it was in one more
country. Only time will tell the tall of Harry
Potter's fate. But for now it
couldn't be jollier with $152.7 million
in the bag already with France, Italy and
Latin America still ahead.
In
Japan, Harry took the
second-highest weekend record (WITHOUT
PREVIEWS!) with $12.5 million in two days
on an unprecedented 650 screens. That's
44% ahead of new-box office champ, Spirited
Away, 50% ahead of A.I.:
Artificial Intelligence that has
the highest box office for an American
film this year ($79 million), and 63%
bigger than Star Wars: Episode I
-- The Phantom Menace, excluding
those titles previews. Spirited
Away's 3-day bow is still the
champ, but it opened on Friday. Its
Saturday ($5.7 million) broke the biggest
opening day, and its Sunday broke the
biggest Sunday ($6.8 million) and single
day.
In
Australia, Harry barely
got away with biggest-opening weekend
with $4.8 million ($9.250 million
Australian Dollars) on 476, which was
also the highest screen number ever. It
eclipsed Star Wars: Episode I --
The Phantom Menace's AUS$9.149
million on 372 and Independence
Day's AUS$7.710 million on 351.
In
Spain, the boy wonder chipped in $4.4
million on 375 (dethroning Planet
of the Apes). In Greece he
notched $699,000 in three days on 54
(beating the five-day haul of What
Women Want). In Portugal the
film scored with $594,000 on 83, and in
Israel it toppled Scary Movie's highest
opening weekend with $567,000 on 87. In
Thailand the film sailed into the second
spot on the highest opening weekend chart
behind Suriyothai, but
it was the highest foreign film with
$1.11 million on 152.
It
didn't top the charts in all the
countries, however. In Mexico it couldn't
pass Dinosaur's highest
opening weekend. It grabbed $3.7 million
on 739 screens. In Argentina it was only
the third-best ever with $1.27 million on
173 prints. Titanic and Episode
I still reign there. In South
Africa, local pic, Mr. Bones,
wowed audiences with the all-time biggest
opening weekend for a local title in
South Africa with $289,106 from 87
prints. Harry Potter was
only narrowly beat, however, with
$288,236.
It also
held extremely well in...everywhere! In
Germany, the pic only dropped 34.5%
fetching a fantastic $10.1 million for a
total of $28.5 million in just two weeks.
It did similarly in The Netherlands ($3.4
million total), Austria ($2.6 million
total), Denmark ($2.6 million total) and
German-speaking Switzerland and Norway.
In Brazil it grabbed $1.4 million in its
second weekend on 484 prints for a huge
total of $3.95 million.
In the
United Kingdom Harry just
wouldn't let up. It dropped only 31% for
$54.2 million in only three weeks. In
Taiwan its third weekend gross was $1.2
million on 58, hoisting it past The
Mummy Returns' total to $7.7
million.
Elsewhere
business was mainly dull. In France,
audiences were more enthused about Harry
Potter's opening this weekend
that they didn't bother to show up at Atlantis:
The Lost Empire. France is know
for its animated grosses and Atlantis
was still no exception to that
with $4.6 million on 800 screens, but
still behind Tarzan, Dinosaur,
and The Lion King. Atlantis
fared even worse in Belgium with
$420,000 on 90 and Spain with $1.9
million in 10 days. It has $45.5 million
in the bank with Germany and Japan
opening this weekend. It is looking more
and more unlikely that Disney will be
able to pull this past the century mark,
just like The Emperor's New
Groove.
Monsters,
Inc. made its offshore debut
with a fantastic $460,000 on 38 in
Singapore, an animated industry record,
outrunning Dinosaur. It
was just ahead of Harry's second,
which grabbed $412,000.
American
Pie 2 wouldn't let up thanks to
South Korea's preem of $485,000 on 60.
Its foreign total climbed to $106.6
million.
These are my predicted
foreign totals for the selected films:
Harry Potter &
the Sorcerer's Stone: $577
million (I'm going out on a limb!)
Atlantis: The Lost
Empire: $78 million
The Princess
Diaries: $71 million
Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider: $141 million
Swordfish: $85
million
Shrek: $259
million
Bridget Jones's
Diary: $171 million
A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence: $181 million
Cats & Dogs:
$110 million
American Pie 2:
$161 million
The Others:
$126 million
*Numbers are changed
whenever a market produces unexpected
numbers.
Check out the FRANCE
FORECAST
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