International - Watchmen wages war

Paramount Pictures International's Watchmen dominated the global box office over the March 6-8 weekend, taking $55.2m from 3,611 screens domestically and $26.6m from 5,149 screens internationally after opening day-and-date in 45 territories.

Zack Snyder's comic-book adaptation opened top in several key territories including the UK, which led the pack with an opening of $4.5m from 419 screens, after a strong marketing campaign in the territory. The top spot was also taken in Russia (with $2.3m from 582 screens), Australia ($2.3m from 356), Italy ($1.5m from 344) and South Korea ($1.4m from 293).

In France, Watchmen had a second-place debut of $2.5m from 498 screens, denied first position by Gran Torino's strong holdover performance ($4.8m from 445). Watchmen opened third in both Spain ($1.9m from 426) and Germany ($2m from 367).

Japanese films enjoyed a good week, with four new entries in Screen's chart including the highest non-US debut: Takashi Miike's Yatterman in eighth place.

Based on a 1970s anime television series revived in 2008, Nikkatsu's comedy opened on 312 screens in its home market, grossing $4.6m and recording a screen average of $14,800, the highest of the week. The film led the Japanese box office in a week where local market share stood at more than 82%, and the top five films were all local.

One place behind Yatterman in Japan, and coming tenth internationally, is the latest film in the Doraemon series, Doraemon The Movie: The New Record of Nobita: Spaceblazer. A remake of a 1981 animation in the series, the film follows the eponymous robotic cat and his owner Nobita as they journey through space. With Toho distributing, the film grossed $3.8m from 364 screens.

Toho's The Triumphant Return Of General Rouge and Kadokawa's Sergeant Keroro: The Super Movie 4 were the other Japanese new entries, taking $1.5m from 301 and $1m from 168, respectively.