The $34.3m take for The Dark Knight in 62 territories was the biggest story of the week for the international box office. Despite a prohibitive 16-rating, major successes include the $9.8m German debut on 754 screens. The Batman film now has a total of $377.6m.
But Toho's Detroit Metal City was the highest new entry after a strong opening in its home territory of Japan. Toshio Lee directs the live-action comedy, based on Kiminori Wakasugi's popular manga series of the same name. It took $3.2m from 241 screens, scoring the week's top screen average of $13,312. The film is due to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
However, Detroit Metal City failed to topple Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea - also distributed by Toho - which held on to the Japanese top spot for the sixth consecutive week, dropping one place to number seven in the international chart. Playing on 481 screens, Hayao Miyazaki's latest feature animation added $5.3m to its tally, and has now crossed the $100m mark, with the current total standing at $104,585,211. This week Ponyo plays in competition at Venice ahead of a US release by Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army re-entered the chart after it opened in Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Norway and the UK where it claimed the top position. Now playing in 14 territories, Hellboy II took more than $7m across 828 screens to take its cumulative figure to almost $33m. The film opens in a further six territories next weekend, with other key releases in France on October 19 and Germany on October 16.
Arn: The Kingdom At Road's End, Peter Flinth's sequel to Arn: The Knight Templar, debuted in the international chart at number 24. With Svensk Film distributing, the film took $1.9m on release, entering the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish charts in first, second and ninth position, respectively. Knight Templar amassed more than $20m across Scandinavia last year. Arn: The Kingdom At Road's End is scheduled for release in Denmark on September 19.
| Analysis: International box-office Weekend August 22-24 | ||||||
| (Last | 3-day | |||||
| week) | Film (origin) | gross $ | Scrs | Cume $ | Terr | |
| 1 | (1) | The Dark Knight (US) | $34,277,967 | 7,194 | $377,641,232 | 62 |
| 2 | (2) | The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon... (US) | $13,985,244 | 5,601 | $223,873,077 | 51 |
| 3 | (3) | Mamma Mia! The Movie (US) | $13,443,128 | 2,796 | $234,636,798 | 29 |
| 4 | (5) | You Don't Mess With The Zohan (US) | $10,378,477 | 1,978 | $56,444,350 | 28 |
| 5 | (4) | Wall-E (US) | $8,530,906 | 3,329 | $162,375,734 | 31 |
| 6 | (48) | Hellboy II: The Golden Army (US) | $7,203,517 | 828 | $32,932,273 | 14 |
| 7 | (6) | Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Jap) | $5,263,530 | 481 | $104,585,211 | 1 |
| 8 | (7) | Star Wars: The Clone Wars (US) | $4,994,005 | 3,791 | $15,022,800 | 31 |
| 9 | (19) | Tropic Thunder (US) | $4,925,194 | 802 | $8,838,561 | 8 |
| 10 | (8) | Kung Fu Panda (US) | $4,244,538 | 3,385 | $372,864,901 | 37 |
| 11 | (23) | Get Smart (US) | $3,998,854 | 1,078 | $80,907,277 | 30 |
| 12 | (11) | Wanted (US) | $3,760,585 | 1,304 | $133,087,271 | 32 |
| 13 | (51) | The Incredible Hulk (US) | $3,688,810 | 879 | $120,790,939 | 12 |
| 14 | (10) | The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince... (US) | $3,664,637 | 2,190 | $269,056,328 | 21 |
| 15 | (17) | Meet Dave (US) | $3,224,432 | 1,403 | $27,223,014 | 25 |
| 16 | New | Detroit Metal City (Jap) | $3,208,174 | 241 | $3,208,174 | 1 |
| 17 | (12) | Journey To The Center Of The Earth (US) | $3,159,158 | 499 | $49,079,869 | 19 |
| 18 | (16) | Taken (Fr) | $3,122,753 | 1,134 | $40,015,217 | 5 |
| 19 | New | Babylon AD (Fr) | $3,117,717 | 530 | $3,117,717 | 1 |
| 20 | (52) | Sex And The City (US) | $2,992,630 | 562 | $245,036,352 | 21 |
| 21 | New | The Girl From Monaco (Fr) | $2,409,405 | 330 | $2,409,405 | 2 |
| 22 | (9) | Singh Is Kinng (Ind) | $2,221,457 | 554 | $25,197,693 | 14 |
| 23 | (14) | Hancock (US) | $1,985,672 | 1,615 | $343,313,512 | 49 |
| 24 | New | Arn: The Kingdom At Road's End (Swed) | $1,903,462 | 275 | $1,903,462 | 2 |
| 25 | (46) | Mirrors (US) | $1,807,589 | 426 | $2,857,797 | 14 |
| 26 | (13) | Bachna Ae Haseeno (Ind) | $1,527,178 | 621 | $6,440,603 | 16 |
| 27 | (20) | Wild Child (UK) | $1,368,615 | 408 | $6,519,186 | 2 |
| 28 | * | Fly Me To The Moon (Bel) | $1,257,183 | 329 | $2,300,709 | 1 |
| 29 | (22) | Mark Of An Angel (Fr) | $1,154,127 | 351 | $3,532,784 | 3 |
| 30 | New | Bangkok Dangerous (US) | $1,151,546 | 313 | $1,151,546 | 1 |
| 31 | (25) | The Bank Job (UK) | $1,139,877 | 446 | $25,229,591 | 10 |
| 32 | (26) | Pokemon 2008 (Jap) | $1,090,754 | 359 | $39,479,273 | 1 |
| 33 | (15) | The X-Files: I Want To Believe (US) | $1,038,559 | 938 | $39,376,087 | 23 |
| 34 | New | Death Race (US) | $1,008,347 | 183 | $1,008,347 | 4 |
| 35 | New | Phoonk (Ind) | $958,722 | 392 | $958,722 | 5 |
| 36 | (49) | Space Chimps (US) | $896,551 | 751 | $9,464,070 | 10 |
| 37 | (21) | Death Bell (S Kor) | $885,097 | 244 | $9,370,310 | 1 |
| 38 | (39) | The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life (Fr) | $851,761 | 313 | $6,923,682 | 2 |
| 39 | * | CJ7 (HK) | $847,864 | 240 | $36,299,847 | 1 |
| 40 | * | Midnight Meat Train (US) | $833,473 | 252 | $1,516,698 | 6 |
| *Re-entry (c) Screen International, compiled by Leonard Klady | ||||||
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