"Dark Knight Rises" is off and running overseas, generating an estimated $122.1 million from 57 overseas markets over the weekend.
In two week of foreign release, the latest Batman epic from Warner Bros. had rung up $248.2 million dollars. The numbers are impressive, given that the studio cancelled premieres in Paris, Mexico City and Tokyo in the wake of the Colorado shootings and the fact that Batman films have traditionally fared much better at home than abroad.
France was the leading territory, bringing in $11.3 million, followed by Germany ($9.9 million), Mexico ($9.8 million) and Russia $8.7 million.
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Fox's "Ice Age: Continental Drift" was impressive abroad, too. Bolstered by excellent openings in China, Korea and India, the film made $49.4 million for the weekend, upping its overseas gross to $514 million.
In China, the film opened in first place with $15.7 million and in Korea, it was Fox's biggest opening ever for an animated film with $3.1 million.
Sony's "Amazing Spider-Man" grossed an estimated $12.2 million in 86 markets over the weekend, bringing its overseas gross to $412.7 million and the film's worldwide total to $654.8 million.
Batman films have historically performed better in the U.S. than overseas, unusual in today's box office world in which foreign grosses outweigh domestic on most big films.
Overall, 55 percent of the Batman franchise’s $2.6 billion in grosses have come from North America. Compare that with the “Harry Potter” films from Warner Bros., which drew just 31 percent of their $7.7 billion gross domestically, or the studio’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which made 35 percent of its $2.9 billion at home, and you see what an anomaly Batman has been.
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“The Dark Knight” made $533 million overseas and $469 million, or 53 percent, domestically in 2008. The first Nolan film, “Batman Begins,” made 55 percent of its $373 million in the U.S. Compare that with 1992’s “Batman Returns,” on which foreign contributed just 39 percent of its $269 million worldwide total.