Universal’s feel-good musical ‘Mamma Mia’ has totaled an eye-popping $307 million outside the United States, dwarfing its $139 million domestic take. And with back-to-back first-place finishes, it has kept overall foreign business decent at a time when moviegoing often lags.
The Ben Stiller comedy “Tropic Thunder” was the most-watched movie across North American over the long US Labor Day weekend, but it was “The Dark Knight” that made news by breaking the 500-million-dollar mark, industry figures showed Sunday. Debuting at second place was Babylon A.D., a sci-fi action thriller starring Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh which earned 12 million dollars.
Combined with its sensational performance at the US box office, “The Dark Knight” has totaled $919 million worldwide and become only the 10th pic to go past $900 million by that measure. It’s the second-best foreign performer this year, trailing only “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” with $466 million.
DreamWorks and Paramount’s holdover comedy “Tropic Thunder” continued to dominate at the Labor Day box office with three-day take of $11.5 million from 3,473 theaters, while 20th Century Fox’s Van Diesel sci-fi actioner “Babylon A.D.” grabbed the No. 2 spot with $9.7 million from 3,390.
Twentieth Century Fox’s Vin Diesel sci-fi actioner “Babylon A.D.” and holdover DreamWorks/Paramount comedy “Tropic Thunder” were in a dead heat as the Labor Day weekend got underway at the US domestic box office.
With disruption from two major sporting events and fewer slam-dunk franchise pics, the overseas numbers weren’t expected to duplicate 2007’s stunning performance. But a variety of films that weren’t sure bets — notably “Mamma Mia!,” “Sex and the City,” “What Happens in Vegas” and “Kung Fu Panda” — managed to dazzle outside the U.S.
The $90 million Ben Stiller sendup of Hollywood had a stellar Saturday, jumping 25% over its Friday level to gross $6.5 million. That propelled it past Sony’s female-skewing “The House Bunny,” which finished second at $15.1 million.
While download sites like Apple’s iTunes offer recent releases and scads of library titles, there’s a void when it comes to some of Hollywood’s greatest — “The Wizard of Oz” and “Schindler’s List” among them — and some of its top-earners. Disappointed fans can either buy the DVD or troll underground peer-to-peer networks.
These days, any independent seller hoping to land a distribution deal at a festival or market like Toronto in September realizes that only a few lucky winners will land a seven-figure minimum guarantee. Only the most commercial, accessible and Oscar-worthy Toronto offerings will be cherry-picked by the studios’ specialty divisions.
Bond titles have traditionally opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, but Sony didn’t want to open too close to Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” so it originally settled on Nov. 7. But the landscape changed last week when Warners announced it was pushing back “Half-Blood Prince” from Nov. 21 to July.