Around the World Roundup: 'Ice Age' Spans Four Weeks, Tops $300M
Stomping past the $300 million mark internationally, Ice Age: The Meltdown remained the highest grossing movie for the fourth weekend in a row. Its weekend haul came to $40.3 million, propelling the computer-animated comedy to $333.1 million. The closest competitor was Scary Movie 4 at $16.4 million for the weekend.

In Italy, the two pictures opened head-to-head, with Ice Age: The Meltdown making $6.2 million from 644 screens compared to Scary Movie 4's $3.4 million from 403 screens. However, Ice Age: The Meltdown debuted to disappointing numbers in major markets South Korea (a second place $1.8 million from 234 screens) and Japan (a fourth place $1.2 million from 464 screens). In Japan, the lucrative Golden Week holiday is now underway, which should greatly improve the movie's fortunes there.

After the inflated Easter holiday, Ice Age: The Meltdown suffered significant drops in some holdover markets, ranging from 57 percent in Germany ($48.6 million total) to 29 percent in Australia ($13.4 million total). Falling between 40 and 50 percent on average, other local tallies improved to $42.7 million in the United Kingdom, $29.8 million in France and $27.4 million in Mexico.

In general, Scary Movie 4 has lagged behind Scary Movie 3 but has done better than the first two entries. The franchise's best territories have been the German-speaking ones, and, in Germany, Scary Movie 4 handily bowed in first place with $4.5 million from 618 screens. Elsewhere, it was on par with Scary Movie 3 in Mexico with a $1.5 million start from 368 screens, while it topped its predecessor in Argentina by 46 percent with a $268,000 opening from 46 screens. Thus far, Scary Movie 4 has grabbed $30.9 million overall.

Inside Man added $8.2 million for a $64.5 million total. The thriller's only weekend highlight was South Korea where it nabbed $1.1 million from 120 screens in third place, beating last year's comparable The Interpreter by 26 percent.

Two new territories helped V for Vendetta deliver a $6.8 million weekend, raising its tally to $43.1 million, but both were as mediocre as previous debuts. In France, the action thriller notched $1.8 million from 336 prints, while, in Japan, it claimed $1.3 million from 253 screens.

American Dreamz was about as unpopular in the U.K. as it was domestically. The satire opened in fourth place with $1.2 million from 354 screens.

Another domestic dud had an even worse foreign start. In France, Slither mustered a mere $236,261 from 150 screens. France, though, is not a strong market for horror, and the horror comedy could conceivably save face elsewhere.