Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol may not top the US box office anymore, but it's still the most popular film in the world today.
We all love to dissect, discuss, obsess over and argue about films. We obsess over performances, artistic value, different genres, cinematography, editing, special effects, ideology and even the politics of movies. But we also -at least some of us- obsess over numbers. How many people go to see a given film? How much does it gross on its opening weekend? Will it become a hit or a flop? And whether we like it or not, the numbers have a great deal to say about the landscape of movies. Not just today, the business of movies has influenced many an artistic decision ever since the birth of cinema. And by peering into the numbers, we can spot invaluable information on the direction of movies at any given point.
Up until today, the biggest obsession over films’ numbers has been focused on their cinema grosses in the USA. For decades, we have received regular updates on US weekend grosses, and often a film’s performance in the US has been the sole deciding factor on whether a film was a “hit” or a “flop”.
But that’s all changing. In the last few years, international grosses have taken a giant leap while business in the US has plateaued. The result is that a bigger percentage of many films’ grosses is coming from outside the USA. Perhaps the two clearest examples of that from 2011 are The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Adventures of Tintin.
The hyped and massively advertised On Stranger Tides was considered a commercial disappointment, grossing “only” $241 million in the United States. Despite that, the film became only the eighth film in history to cross the massive $1 billion mark worldwide, on the strength of a huge $802 million international gross, or 77% of the film’s total gross.
The Adventures of Tintin then took a relatively novel approach for a blockbuster. As Tintin is something of an unknown entity in the US, producers Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson released it in Europe a full two months before its US release (as opposed to the other way around for many other films) to maximise its income. The result: $286 million out of its $360 million worldwide gross have come from outside the US. That’s almost 80%, people.
And so, with this overlong introduction, we present a new approach to box office discussion. Instead of a US chart, we will bring you a weekly worldwide chart, as we believe it represents the true rhythm of the movie world much better. We will split it in three columns, “US”, “International” and “Worldwide”, for the best possible insight, but order it according to the “Worldwide” scale. You’ll be surprised how much the picture changes. Let’s start with the chart for January 27-29:*
| Rank | Film | US | Int’l | World | Lifetime | Weeks in top 10 |
| 1 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | $3,5 | $25,2 | $28,7 | $588,0 | 7 |
| 2 | Underworld Awakening | $12,4 | $16,0 | $28,4 | $87,0 | 2 |
| 3 | The Descendants | $6,4 | $15,9 | $22,3 | $86,7 | 2 |
| 4 | The Grey | $19,7 | $1,7 | $21,4 | $24,4 | 1 |
| 5 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | $2,5 | $18,1 | $20,6 | $476,5 | 7 |
| 6 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | $2,2 | $11,2 | $13,4 | $185,2 | 6 |
| 7 | One For the Money | $11,5 | $0,0 | $11,5 | $13,1 | 1 |
| 8 | Red Tails | $10,4 | $0,0 | $10,4 | $35,1 | 2 |
| 9 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | $1,8 | $7,5 | $9,3 | $308,4 | 7 |
| 10 | Contraband | $6,7 | $1,7 | $8,4 | $64,3 | 3 |
Despite having slowed down in the United States, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is still the hottest film worldwide, taking the top spot from Underworld Awakening, thanks to a huge opening weekend in China, where it grossed $13,5 million on January 27-29. It is now the highest-grossing Mission: Impossible film of all time, having eclipsed MI2′s $546 million last week. It’s sure to break $600 million and might just squeeze past $650 million before the end of its run, possibly entering the all-time Top 50 film worldwide (Kung Fu Panda 2 sits at #50 with $665,4 million). That’s no small feat for a film many feared would not even turn a profit.
Two films managed to enter the top 10 on their US grosses alone. One For the Money sits in the 7th spot with $11,5 million and will start expanding to other noteworthy territories this week, while George Lucas’ Red Tails sits in the 8th spot with $10,4 million. The Grey’s top-grabbing $19,7 million US gross only gets it to the 4th spot overall, as the United Kingdom and Iceland were the only two other territories where it premiered last weekend.
*Box-office numbers according to Boxofficemojo.com
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February 2, 2012 at 3:32 pm
I like this chart. Very useful.
February 2, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Thanks, man. It’ll be a weekly feature here, and I’ll try to provide insight into the numbers as well. This week was more of an introduction to a new format.