Int'l Box Office: Alexander conquers Europe

Oliver Stone needn't haveworried about the US critical reaction to Alexander having an adverseeffect on European box office. Opening in key European territories includingSpain, France and the UK this week Alexander flew in the face ofcritical reaction to lead the international table with a powerful $18.7mweekend.

The film has already morethan doubled its North American gross ($34.1m) and looks set to follow in thewake of recent historical epics like Troy and King Arthur, whichdid 73% and 74.5% of their worldwide business from international territoriesrespectively.

The weekend was led bySpain's superb $7.2m (Euros 5.5m) gross, including previews, from 1.1 millionadmissions. This gave the film, which is released through Tri Pictures inSpain, the fourth highest launch of all time in the territory.

In Ireland itself, homelandof Alexander's leading man Colin Farrell, the film made $434,931 (Euros333,331) over the weekend at 54 screens (a strong $8,054 screen average) forWarner Bros, including previews. These figures were included in the UK andIrelandHs $2.2m (H1.1m) weekend gross which included total previews of$301,758.

Ireland accounted for over19% of the territory's receipts for Alexander compared to just 7.8% forfellow opener White Noise and 8.5% and 10.8% respectively for theweekendHs top grossing UK holdovers The Incredibles and LemonySnicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Oceanns Twelve continued strong in second while BVI's TheIncredibles and National Treasure passed significant box officemarks in third and fourth. The Incredibles capped the $300m mark and nowranks as the fourth highest grossing animated film of all time internationallyafter Finding Nemo, Shrek 2 and The Lion King. National Treasure passed$100m in its seventh week on release. The action adventure has manyterritories, including Japan, yet to open.

A number one position inItaly saw Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason receive a boost. Theromantic comedy looks set to surpass $200m internationally in the next week andshould overtake the 2001 original which finished its international run on$208.7m.

Horror remake The Grudgesaw a host of new openings led by Italy's second place (behind Bridget)for 01 Distribuzione and third place in The Netherlands for Independent Film,where it boasted the best screen average of the week (see individual charts onScreenDaily.comms World Box Office section).

An Australian launch and anumber one in New Zealand helped family title The SpongeBob SquarePantsMovie climb up the chart. The animated film is still in early stages ofroll-out. The two territories also gave another family film, Racing Stripes,its first week on the international chart a week ahead of its North Americanrelease.

North American chart triumphWhite Noise also took a lead position in the UK through EntertainmentFilm Distributors launching it into 13th place on the international table. TheAviator's first week on the table, albeit its third on release, was alsothanks to a wide release in the UK following a limited two-week platformrelease.

To see the international chart, click here