dvd downloads ‘Angels’ has heavenly overseas bow
Sony’s “Angels & Demons” owned the international circuit during the weekend, claiming the No. 1 spot in all of its 96 debut markets with a heavenly $102.1 million from 10,274 screens for a powerful $9,934 per-screen average.
An adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel written before Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” — the film version of which Sony skillfully exploited offshore in 2006 — “Angels” registered the 10th biggest international launch ever, and easily the biggest foreign opening of 2009.
“Angels’ ” opening weekend was also the biggest overseas since the May 21, 2008, launch of Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which drew $147 million playing 8,399 screens in 55 territories. “Angels’ ” worldwide opening gross was $148.1 million.
Created by the same team responsible for “Da Vinci” — co-producer Imagine Entertainment and director Ron Howard, with Tom Hanks reprising as Harvard symbologist Dr. Robert Langdon — the summer’s latest tentpole failed to match “Da Vinci’s” $155 million opening weekend tally (from 12,213 screens in some 80 markets).
Nonetheless, “Angels” is off to a very strong foreign start, critical for such an adult-oriented title.
“Da Vinci” grossed $539.7 million over the course of its overseas run, enough to become the 15th biggest offshore hit ever. A full 71% of “Da Vinci’s” worldwide boxoffice revenue ($757.2 million) came from outside North America. (Sony, as it did with “Da Vinci,” opened “Angels” simultaneously with its domestic debut.)
Sony said that on a local currency basis, nine of the territories “Angels” played actually beat the comparable market launches of “Da Vinci.” The strongest individual markets for “Angels” were Germany ($11.8 million from 792 screens) and Italy ($8 million from 818 sites).
The $104.3 million weekend tally does not include proceeds from several significant markets. Mexico and India openings are scheduled for May 22 and May 29, respectively. A Norway debut is set for May 20, and a Vietnam opening is due May 29. “Angels” has been approved for China, but the opening date is not yet set.
“The way I look at it is that if you extract those opening grosses (from the markets where ‘Angels’ has not yet premiered) from ‘The Da Vinci Code’s’ $155 million (opening weekend), you would be comparing ‘Angels’ ‘ $104.3 million against $142 million,” said Mark Zucker, president of Sony Pictures Releasing International.
Last week’s No. 1 title, Paramount’s “Star Trek,” opened Friday in China to an estimated $1.8 million from 723 screens. The overall weekend gross was $19.3 million from 5,587 screens in 50 territories, raising the rejuvenated space adventure’s foreign cume to $67.7 million (worldwide, $215.3 million).
That makes the latest “Star Trek” screen version the biggest foreign grosser of the 11-title series thus far, besting 1996′s “Star Trek: First Contact,” which tallied $57.4 million overseas.
No. 3 was Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which in its third weekend extracted $13.9 million from 7,695 situations in 68 territories. Its cume stands at a lofty $145 million. Notable on the weekend was its No. 4 ranking in its third U.K. weekend with $1.8 million from 452 screens and a market cume of $21 million.
Finishing fourth was the New Line comedy “17 Again” with Zac Efron, which raised its overseas cume to $48.7 million thanks to a $5.6 million weekend from 2,498 situations in 38 markets. Launches in Germany, Italy, Japan and Austria contributed $2.9 million from a combined 776 screens.
No. 5 was Disney’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which grossed $4.7 million from 1,814 screens in 16 markets. The cume stands at $26.1 million. The biggest contributor was Spain, where the Miley Cyrus vehicle finished No. 2 with $1.9 million from 383 locations for a market cume of $6.1 million. Download New movies
