Box Office Special: When Films are Bigger Abroad...
Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 6:00PM What did you see this weekend?
Let's ignore Suicide Squad's big box office weekend (read Lynn's review here) as that story is overworked already given the months of hoopla on the internet and the expected fact of a very big weekend (that's what happens with much-hyped superhero films). Instead for the weekend box office column, let's talk about a situation that occurs each year in terms of different preferences in blockbusters around the globe. Those differences sometimes go a long way in explaining why some franchises never die (Hello, Ice Age) even long past their natural expiration dates. Though Finding Dory has easily topped the domestic charts in the US to become 2016's champ, it couldn't reach the global power of Captain America: Civil War (#1), Zootopia (#2) or The Jungle Book (#3) worldwide. Taste and success do vary across borders.
Stephen Chow's "The Mermaid" is the 7th biggest hit of 2016... but it did only $3 million in the US
After the jump let's look at the titles from 2016 with less than a third of their treasure chests coming from the US (currently the biggest film market though China will reportedly surpass us soon). What can we learn from this list?
Hits This Year That Received Less than 30% of Their Box Office Gross from the US
numbers from box office mojo
01. The Mermaid (China) worldwide gross $553.8
02. X-Men Apocalypse (US) worldwide gross $534.6 REVIEWED
03. Kung Fu Panda 3 (US) worldwide gross $519.9
04. Warcraft (US/UK) worldwide gross $433 REVIEWED
05. Monster Hunt (China) worldwide gross $385.3
06. Independence Day: Resurgence (US) worldwide gross $379.2
07. Now You See Me 2 (US) worldwide gross $313.4
08. Alice Through the Looking Glass (US) worldwide gross $287.2
09. Ice Age: Collison Course (US) worldwide gross $288.2
10. The Monkey King 2 (Hong Kong / China) worldwide gross $193.7
Salman Khan stars in "Sultan," Bollywood's biggest hit this year
11. Me Before You (UK/USA) worldwide gross $188.1 REVIEWED
12. The Huntsman: Winter's War (US) worldwide gross $164.6 REVIEWED
13. Ip Man 3 (Hong Kong) worldwide gross $156.8
14. Gods of Egypt (US/Australia) worldwide gross $145.7 REVIEWED
15. Detective Chinatown (China) worldwide gross $125.8
16. The Little Prince (France/Canada) worldwide gross $97.6 REVIEWED
17. Sultan (India) worldwide gross $84.1
18. Absolutely Fabulous the Movie (UK) worldwide gross $28.9 REVIEWED
19. The Brothers Grimsby (UK/USA/Australia) worldwide gross $25.2
20. The Wild Life (Belgium/France) worldwide gross $20.4
Argentina's Oscar submission "El Clan" was about a very famous true crime scandal
21. El Clan (Argentina/Spain) worldwide gross $20.4 REVIEWED
22. Regression (Canada/Spain) worldwide gross $17.7
23. Neerja (India) worldwide gross $17.5
24. Kapoor & Sons - Since 1921 (India) worldwide gross $15.4
25. The Other Side of the Door (UK/US/India) worldwide gross $14.2
The first lesson is obviously that it helps to have a robust home film market as China and India both do. While $3 million is nothing to sneeze at at the US box office for a subtitled picture these days, it's astonishing that The Mermaid, a fantasy from China won 99.4% of its considerable revenue without the help of the USA's ginormous market. (Why can't distributors get Americans more interested in foreign films? We can't use the excuse of "subtitles" anymore because subtitles have become increasingly common in mainstream shows on television and no one minds. The days of foreign films getting even close to Pan's Labyrinth sized totals -- and that was only 10 years ago -- seem long gone.)
The second lesson is that it helps to be an animated film. These are much easier to dub in multiple languages and they're generally family audience friendly. (So, again, why can't distributors get American audiences interested in foreign animated features when they sound just like American features at home given the voice casts assembled?)
What else do you think the list tells us?
Reader Comments (12)
Are you American? Because you seem divorced from the pathologies and mentalities of them. If American citizens are indifferent to their neighbor next door and the majority don't own a passport, how can you blame distributors for a lack of interest in foreign product? Marketplace dictates what the consumer receives. Foreign animation does not look Disney friendly which American families prefer over the idiosyncratic stuff.
Action heavy fantasy titles play well all over the world
/3rtful: I've heard things like this said about Americans before. It can't be the case that 300 million people are all like that.
China already owns significant real estate in the U.S., so why not assert dominance over the movie market.
I am boycotting Marvel and DC movies. My crusade.
Don't Think Twice is very good. Fleshed out characters and honest. Funny. Well written and directed.
I'm so pleased with how Ab Fab did this summer! $28 million on a $11 million budget is nothing to scoff at. Plus it had a classy but enthusiastic marketing campaign, good stateside visibility for both the franchise and its stars. The project was treated royally and the audience they expected to turn up, turned up. We need more summer movies like this.
I flew China Southern Airlines last week and saw that passengers around me were watching what looked like a slap stick comedy with low budget action effects. From the photo above, I now know that it was The Mermaid so thanks for solving that.
PLEASE tell me this doesn't mean there's going to be a Warcraft sequel.....
But The Mermaid is one of my favorite films of the year so far, so it's very cool to see its super high worldwide gross.
Been watching "Difficult People" on Netflix. Though it feels like early "Seinfeld," in the sense that the two leads do a lot of their standup shtick at each other, it's still light-weight fun...and their potshots at other (more popular) TV shows is pretty right on...
And it's nice to see Andrea Martin again...even though she now looks like a mini-Cher!
This list makes me very happy. Not only we, americans, make
terrible movies. Other countries too.
Terrible movies are made everywhere- and not just by "ignorant passport lacking Americans" ; )
I don't care what anyone thinks, I LOVED The Mermaid.
I also saw Don't Think Twice and really liked it - really smart, subtly clever script and performances.