Around the World Roundup: Another 'Ratatouille' Feast
While the domestic box office continued to disappoint, Ratatouille saw its biggest weekend yet overseas, topping the foreign chart for the third consecutive frame with $30.1 million from 29 nations. Growing to $310.1 million overall, the animated comedy, which has remained in the Top Ten since its June 28 opening, received a boost from one of its final markets: Italy. It opened to $7.3 million from 658 screens, besting the past debuts of Cars by 38 percent and The Incredibles by 46 percent. Meanwhile, it held firmly atop the charts in Germany (down one percent), the United Kingdom (off 31 percent) and Denmark (up 41 percent). Further adding to its outstanding box office were excellent starts in Finland ($675,471 from 66 screens), Poland ($1.5 million from 130) and Sweden ($2 million from 183 screens).

Also seeing a significant increase was Stardust, which placed second over the weekend with $8.5 million from 38 markets for a $42.5 million total. The fantasy had several soft openings, including Germany ($1.1 million) and Taiwan ($267,531 from 49 screens). In the U.K., however, it debuted to $4.1 million from 377 screens, almost doubling the opening of Eragon.

With few openings, Resident Evil: Extinction fell to third place overseas, nabbing $6 million from 30 markets for a $50.3 million total. The horror sequel's biggest opening came from South Korea where it placed third with a respectable $1.6 million from 280 screens. Elsewhere, it fell dramatically and saw decent launches in smaller markets like Croatia ($29,773 from 4) and Iceland ($19,895 from 2).

Local productions have started to fill up the international chart, grabbing the final two spots in the Top Five. Russian native Shadow Boxing 2 amassed an impressive $5.5 million from both Russia/CIS and the Ukraine. The sequel doubled the 2005 debut of its hugely popular predecessor. The Orphanage continued to dominate the Spain with its $5.1 million weekend, down 31 percent from its fantastic opening and more than doubling the debut of the second ranked movie, Superbad. The horror movie has now grossed more than Pan's Labyrinth did in its entire Spanish run, accumulating $15.2 million thus far.

Also potent locally has been Lust, Caution, which still leads Taiwan in its fourth weekend. Ang Lee's erotic drama now has over $7 million from his home market. All told, the picture has made $11.3 million, including a promising start in Germany ($260,836 from 62 screens).

Superbad looked great in Spain, grossing $2.3 million from 350 screens in its opening. Aside from the U.K.'s $12.7 million and Australia's $5.7 million, the comedy has yet to catch on overseas like Knocked Up, but its overall tally of $31.9 million is laudable considering the genre.

Meanwhile, Rendition kicked off its foreign campaign with a meager $1.2 million opening from 325 screens in the U.K.

RELATED LINKS

• Foreign Weekend Box Office Results

• International Box Office Home Page