International Box Office - Da Vinci Confounds Analysts as Records Fall
May 24, 2006
To call The Da Vinci Code's worldwide start impressive is an understatement of incredible proportions. The film pulled in a record breaking $152.45 million on 12,182 screens in 57 markets for a total of $155.00 million including previews, which tops Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith's record of $144.7 million on 10,000 screens in 114 markets. (On a side note, that latter film did earn a better per screen average by a significant margin.) The film already has $232.07 million on the worldwide scene and will enter the top 200 by the beginning of the weekend. This is even more impressive as industry tracking had it struggling to make $100 million internationally and predictions were for just over $150 million worldwide.
Looking at some individual markets, The Da Vinci Code opened in first place in all 57 markets breaking records several of them, mostly in markets with high percentages of Catholics. For instance, the film topped Italy with a record breaking $10.19 million on 815 screens over the weekend and in Spain it made $11.1 million on 755 screens. Other 8-figure markets were the U.K. with $17.85 million on 523 screens, $12.3 million on 1154 screens in Germany, $11.6 million on 999 in France, and $11.31 million on 863 screens in Japan.
There were more than a dozen other markets where the film topped $1 million including...
As for the rest of the top five, they were overshadowed by The Da Vinci Code and there are few details to report. Here's the list of films and full details will be given on Sunday.
The film is already halfway to profitability, but will face major competition next weekend when X-Men: The Last Stand will open in a similarly wide fashion.
- C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: International Box Office, The Da Vinci Code, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Mission: Impossible III