Faced with tough competition in its ailing home market, Interstellar was forced to venture to distant multiplexes to find the top spot in this weekend’s global box office. Christopher Nolan’s ambitious galactic odyssey, starring Mathew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, had a cumulative opening of $132.1 million, with an impressive $80 million coming from abroad, while the remaining $52.1 million was recouped from the U.S. and Canada. Taking into account the opposing factors of enormous buzz and inconsistent reviews, international distributor Warner Bros. Pictures decided to launch a more or less full scale overseas campaign in the film’s first weekend, releasing in 62 markets in order to maximize returns before audiences’ curiosity inevitably fades. Number one finishes in several key territories, including a huge $14.1 million opening in Korea,
$8.4 million in the UK and $8.1 million in Russia seem to indicate that they made
the right decision.
A second place domestic result with $52.1 million is certainly no flop although North American distributor Paramount would like to have ended up ahead of Disney’s animated smash Big Hero 6. Imax is celebrating a November release record, having made $7.2 million foreign and $13.4 million domestic for a combined total of $20.6 million. There is almost no doubt that this film will become profitable despite its $165 million budget, yet it seems very unlikely to be remembered as one of the year’s standout box office performers. Big Hero 6, with its inflatable protagonist and heartwarming PG action was an unlikely candidate to force Christopher Nolan’s astral epic into second place, yet Disney’s latest 3D toon did just that in its opening weekend. It debuted with $56.2 million domestic, profiting from good reviews and an audience that hasn’t had a new family-oriented offering since The Book of Life was released three weeks ago. The film was another comic book adaptation, albeit a very liberal one, and like Guardians of the Galaxy shows that the treasure trove of paneled storylines that writers are becoming increasingly adept at mining reaches much, much farther than the ubiquitous Batmans and Spidermans. Its international expansion yielded $7.6 Million. It has an overseas cumulative of $23 million after having opened in Japan, Russia, and several Central Asian republics two weeks ago. Western Europe as well as East Asia and South America will start seeing the film over the next five weeks, meaning we can expect Big Hero 6 to hang around the international top ten for a while longer.
Third place in the domestic market went to Gone Girl, which earned $6.1 million in its sixth week and reached a home cumulative of $145.42 million. Gone Girl finished fourth abroad with $8.5 million. Its international and domestic total is now a staggering $303.6 million and with awards nominations practically a given this film seems destined to surpass David Fincher’s biggest picture The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s $33.9 million run. It will have done so with just one-third the budget.
Overseas the middle of the table was much the same as the last two weeks, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Maze Runner continuing to enjoy their international second winds, finishing with $17.3 million and $11.6 million in second and third place respectively.
On the specialty market Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything had a $207,000 limited release with a $41,400 per-screen average and looks ready to make a wider expansion next weekend. However intriguing the life of the world’s most famous and decorated living scientist may be, it will most likely be overshadowed by the third entry in the Dumb and Dumber series, Dumb and Dumber To.
Lorenzo Soria