Two weeks of terrible news and horrific events are likely the reason why audiences worldwide opted for cute talking animals over any other cinematic offer. Internationally, Fox’s Ice Age: Collision Course took the number one spot for the second consecutive frame, amassing $53.5 million from 51 markets to a grand overseas total of $ 127 million. In the US, Sony’s rebooted Ghostbusters saw its coveted top-of-the-charts spot taken by last week’s champion, Universal/Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets, which, in its second week, added $50.5 million to its already very healthy take to a domestic total of $203.1 million.

Collision Course, the fifth installment in the Ice Age franchise, has yet to open stateside; nonetheless, the animated series about the adventures of a group of cute pre-historic animals has always performed better overseas, and this outing confirmed the trend, grabbing the top spot in 35 overseas market, with France leading the way in spite of the Nice tragedy.

Ghostbusters is just starting its international run. The all-female reboot of Columbia’s 1984 blockbuster performed well in the UK and Australia, shooting for the number 1 spot with  $ 6.1 million and $3.7 million opening totals, respectively; in Brazil Paul Feig’s supernatural comedy fared well with $ 2.2 million from 800 screens, a new record for both the director and his star, Melissa McCarthy, in the territory. In key markets such as Japan, Russia, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Spain and France the picture will roll out between this coming week and early August.

Domestically, Ghostbusters actually performed better than Sony had anticipated – instead of the predicted $ 30 million, the final take for the opening weekend was $ 46 million. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon in the roles originally created in 1984 by Dan Aykroyd, Golden Globe winner Bill Murray, the late Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, Paul Feig’s take on the Ghostbusters premise – a team of fearless and funny paranormal exterminators- faced rabid opposition from male fans and cult purists, but ended with a 75% positive rating on the critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 32 years ago the US market was the main force behind the first picture’s success, with a $242.2 million contribution to its $ 295.2 million total. Will we see the opposite now, when international markets rule?

In the specialized domestic market the big news was conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. A 100-minute takedown of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the documentary became the year’s top ranking movie in its genre, with an average $25,833 from three cinemas. Other well-performed titles in limited release included BroadImage’s thriller The Infiltrator, starring Bryan Cranston as a secret informant inside the Medellin cartel, which tool $ 5.3 million from 2,182 theaters, and Woody Allen’s latest, the vintage Hollywood romantic comedy Café Society, starring Kristen Stewart and Golden Globe nominee Jesse Eisenberg, with $ 355,000 from five theaters.

Next week we’ll track the expansion of Ghostbusters around the world, the domestic debut of Ice Age: Collision Course and the launch of Star Trek: Beyond, with director Justin Lin behind the controls of the Enterprise.

See the latest world box office estimates: worldwide_weekend_estimates_07172016.pdf