‘Life of Pi’ Tops Batman, Spidey at China Box Office

Boosted by $68M from China, Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" has taken in $105M at overseas box office in three weeks

With a big boost from China, “Life of Pi” is off to a fast start at the overseas box office.

It added $23.8 million from 11 international markets over the weekend, raising its overseas total to $105 million in just three weeks, with many key markets yet to come. It showed remarkable staying power, dropping just three percent from last week despite no new openings.

Also read: James Bond Is Back: 'Skyfall' Reclaims No. 1 at Box Office in 5th Week

"Pi" held the top spot in five markets, including China ($14.6 million, up 6 percent), where its $68.3 million gross to date has already surpassed the total runs earlier this year of “Dark Knight Rises” ($52 million) and “The Amazing Spiderman" ($48 million).Chinese officials required those to films to open against each other in August, which surely hurt the totals of both.

The week's top-grossing film internationally was Paramount's "Rise of the Guardians." The 3D animated holiday tale took in $26 million from 58 foreign markets, including No. 1 finishes in the U.K., France, Italy and Mexico. Its overall foreign gross is $90.5 million and its worldwide total is $151 million.

"Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" added $23.5 million from 74 overseas markets. It has brought in $482 million internationally and this week became the highest-grossing "Twilight" film ever globally. Coupled with the $268 million it had made domestically, it has an overall worldwide gross of $751 million.

Also read: Independent Box Office: 'Hyde Park' Averages $20K Per Theater

Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s "Skyfall" added another $20.3 million overseas this weekend. That brings the international total to $656.6 million. With the estimated $261.6 million from North America, "Skyfall" has now taken in $918 million worldwide — the highest grossing film ever released by Sony Pictures beating 2007's "Spider-Man 3" ($890 million).

On "Skyfall," Sony’s markets earned an estimated $18.8 million overseas to bring the total to $571.1.  MGM’s distribution partners grossed an estimated $1.6 million to bring their overall number to $85.5 million.

"Skyfall" remained No. 1 in Australia for the third consecutive weekend with $4.8 million, raising its total there to $33.5 million. It added $3.3 million from its second week in Japan, bringing its overall market total to $13.2 million.

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