MUMBAI: Opening in 35 markets, New Line/MGM‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey swept the foreign theatrical circuit for the second consecutive weekend bagging $91 million in more than 18,600 screens in 59 markets. It thereby pushed Life of Pi to second place.
The Hobbit drew a mighty opening gross in Russia ($16.8 million from 2,129 venues including previews), taking 75 per cent of the weekend market. Distributor Warner Bros said that in Russia, 65 per cent of the total box office came from 3D venues.
To underscore the growth in recent years of the Russian territory, the distributor noted that the weekend debut paced 313 per cent ahead of the opening Russia gross of Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, released in 2003 and the biggest foreign grosser of the LOTR titles.
Director Peter Jackson‘s fantasy tale of the first installment of the director‘s $500 million trilogy based on the J R R Tolkien novel took a relatively small dip of 34 per cent from its opening round and has totaled a foreign gross intake to date of $284 million.
Meanwhile, Paramount‘s latest Tom Cruise action title, Jack Reacher that premiered in seven offshore markets including Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Lebanon collected an estimated $2.5 million from 365 locations.
Universal opened Les Miserables co-starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway in 348 locations in Japan for a weekend total of $4.2 million for a per-location average of more than $12,000.
Universal also opened director Judd Apatow‘s comedy, This Is 40, in eight screens in Slovenia. Results is expected to be out today.