Hollywood's foreign booty: New 'Pirates' film earned over $250 million abroad
| Los Angeles
The boffo overseas box office for 鈥�Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides鈥� 鈥� which pulled in more than a quarter-billion dollars in its first week of foreign release 鈥� underlines the growing importance of the markets outside US borders.
This is the biggest foreign opening weekend in movie history, according to studio figures.
International markets have always been a piece of the pie 鈥� but in the past 25 years, it鈥檚 grown from a quarter of the pie to nearly 70 percent. Another shift: movies used to open domestically before heading out for distant shores. But in the past few years, Hollywood has begun plying its wares in such far-flung places as China, Russia, and India before the films even bow in their own backyard.
鈥淭he international marketplace is vitally important,鈥� says Paul Dergarabedian, box office expert for Hollywood.com. He points out that, with economies developing in more than a hundred nations around the globe, studios will tailor their product to those diverse audiences more than ever.
"Russia and China were Pirates's top territories with $28.6 million and $20 million, respectively. On Stranger Tides is already the top Pirates movie ever in China, and it's just a day or two away from reaching that mark in Russia as well," reports , adding that it "set industry records in Latin America, the Middle East, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine."
The new 鈥淧irates鈥� film 鈥渕ade almost three times as much overseas as it did in the US,鈥� says Mr. Dergarabedian, adding that this performance sends a powerful message to studio executives.
鈥淲hen you start to see numbers like this from international markets, you don鈥檛 worry so much about how it did on opening weekend at home.鈥� He points out that the latest 鈥淧irates鈥� offering 鈥渟lightly underperformed here at home,鈥� noting that the $90.1 million US box office for the movie is a bit under the targeted $100 million mark.
Films as 鈥榓 global commodity鈥�
While studios long have mounted country-specific advertising campaigns, international revenue like this 鈥� $256.3 million 鈥� Hollywood's foreign appeal: New 'Pirates' film opens abroad with $250 millionwill lead to much deeper adaptations, says Dergarabedian. 鈥淚n the past, they might have changed American slang in a title or focused on a different cast member in the posters,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut now they鈥檙e doing things like casting with an eye for the international audience and telling stories about more exotic locales.鈥�
The addition of global superstar Penelope Cruz to the latest installment in the pirate franchise is just one example. The recent 鈥淔ast Five鈥� 鈥� the fifth piece of the 鈥淔ast and Furious鈥� cars-and-country-roads saga 鈥� filmed in Brazil.
Animated films can go even further. The second installment in the 鈥淐ars鈥� saga, opening in the US June 24, subs in vehicles that appeal to local audiences in each country. 鈥淔ilms are a global commodity,鈥� Dergarabedian adds.
The eye-popping international numbers of the latest 鈥淧irates鈥� debut owe as much to the growth of the movie exhibition infrastructure around the world as to the enticing power of snappy new technology like 3D and Imax. China, for instance, is reportedly adding some four new movie theaters a day, says an article in , vastly expanding the sheer number of people who will turn out for a new film.
The globalization of the film industry will benefit moviegoers, says storyteller and former Disney animator Jason Lethcoe. 鈥淲e are in a very exciting time with the emergence of a more international film,鈥� he says.
鈥淎merica has a long and somewhat myopic history of telling uniquely American kinds of stories,鈥� says Mr. Lethcoe. 鈥淎nything that makes us more aware of what鈥檚 being done in other countries is a good thing.鈥�
An appeal to the 鈥榣owest common denominator鈥�?
Not everyone is quite as upbeat about the rising impact of international money.
Wider demand does not create a better product, says Wheeler Winston Dixon, a film professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and co-author 鈥� with Gwendolyn Foster 鈥� of the upcoming book 鈥�21st Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation.鈥� [Editor's note: The original version of this sentence left off co-author Gwendolyn Foster.]
By necessity, internationally-targeted blockbusters play to the 鈥渓owest common denominator,鈥� he says. Explosions and action sequences need no subtitles, after all.
He likens it to the saturation marketing practiced back in 1950s Hollywood. 鈥淭hey opened a film like 鈥業 was a Teenage Werewolf鈥� in as many theaters as possible in order to get as many people in before word-of-mouth 鈥� about just how bad the film really was 鈥� could spread,鈥� Professor Dixon says with a laugh.
The tactic here is very similar, beefed up with the new lure of 3D and big screens, Dixon says, 鈥渂ut the actual quality of the movies is going down.鈥�
