National Treasure found gold in Japan, The Ring Two bared its teeth, Robots melted in the face of fine weather across Europe, and Hitch continued to seduce international audiences this weekend in the lead-up to Easter vacations.
Hitch continued its dreamy run at the foreign boxoffice. The romantic comedy was No. 1 for the third week with an estimated weekend cume of $23 million from 48 territories on a wide 5,160 prints. The cume of $98 million likely will top $100 million.
The French fell hard for Hitch giving it a No. 1 debut with an ardent $4.4 million from 569 screens. In the United Kingdom, Hitch enticed the British in its second week despite sunny post-winter weather. The Will Smith starrer was again the top film, with an estimated $4.3 million from 709 prints — a drop of 33per cent — for a cume of $15.5 million. Preliminary figures showed a tight battle for second place between Constantine, in its U.K. bow, and Robots, in its second week.
In Germany, Hitch was No. 1 for the third weekend after takings of about $3.8 million from a massive 912 screens lifted the cume to $22.4 million. Also in Germany, the cume for Meet the Fockers just passed the $20 million mark, lifting the international total for the hit comedy to $220.6 million.
Hitch is holding well in Australia and made another $1.4 million in its third week there — off just 23 per cent — for a cume of $7.5 million.
Holland, Austria and Belgium each showed their love, handing Hitch the top spot and another $500,000 apiece.
Robots distributor 20th Century Fox was disappointed by the film’s results, similar to United States figures, which are tracking only 75per cent of the returns for the company’s 3-D animated hit Ice Age. Results are expected to improve, however, once school holidays kick in this week. Weekend results of $16.8 million brought the cume across 31 territories to $21.2 million.
In openings, Robots made $2.5 million from 868 screens in Germany, $415,000 from 110 in Austria, $1.9 million from 425 in Spain, an excellent $1.1 million from 275 in Russia, a solid $780,000 from 423 in Brazil and $399,000 from 113 in Sweden.
Ring Two unfurled in 14 territories day-and-date with the United States and grossed $5.1 million from 810 screens internationally, on average tracking 38 per cent ahead of the original.
The ghostly sequel, starring Naomi Watts, kicked off its Latin American dates in Mexico, opening at No. 1 with about $2.27 million from 324 screens, pushing Robots” to No. 2. in its second week with $1.5 on 659 screens, off 36 per cent.
Ring Two was on top in the Netherlands with $380,000 from 85 screens; Norway with $300,000 from 43, ahead of opener Robots; and New Zealand with $215,000 from 43, beating the opening of Be Cool.
In Sweden, opener Robots won the battle, and Ring Two came in second with about $355,00 from 41 screens. Other Ring Two estimates from major territories include Turkey ($450,000 from 110 screens), Greece ($275,000 from 33), Portugal ($215,000 from 46 screens), Thailand ($400,000 from 44) and Denmark ($200,000 from 25).
National Treasure is going out with a bang. The Nicolas Cage starrer took a massive $3.6 million opening on 210 screens in Japan — a per-screen average of more than $17,000 and double its nearest competitor, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason — and collared another $600,000 from China. The weekend total of $4.3 million brought its international cume to $153.2 million and lifted its worldwide gross to more than $320 million. Constantine grossed an estimated $7.9 million from 42 territories, bringing its cumulative total to an estimated $98.3 million with the film yet to open in Japan. The Keanu Reeves starrer opened with $3.98 million (including previews) in the United Kingdom, behind first-place Hitch.
In Argentina, Constantine grossed an estimated $350,900 from 66 screens, ranking No. 1 with a 40 per cent markt share. In holdovers the heaven-and-hell tale dropped 30 per cent in Brazil in its second week for another $965,000 and a territory cume of $2.95 million.