World Cup still has an effect, regardless if the country is in the tournament or not. It's still the most popular sporting event in the world. Also at least in China, the games are at 7:30pm, 10pm, and 2:30am, so 2 out of 3 are at prime time.

Then why did they say $9.5m, what a large discrepency

The final figure from China is 31.5m yuan, or $4.6m, for last week.

So does that mean that it's international opening would've reduce from $44.8m now...anyone have sources?

Just found it...this is from BOM...

Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3 debuted in 25 percent of the international market, grossing $43.4 million in 25 territories. The animated sequel hit that height mostly through China and Latin America and without any major European territories. It broke the opening gross record for an animated title in Mexico ($15.6 million), China ($9.5 million) and Argentina ($2.6 million), and it set a new Pixar high in Brazil ($2.8 million). Disney reported that Up had a $23.7 million from the same 25 countries last year, and Toy Story 3 will follow a similar staggered distribution strategy to the one that led Up to a sensational $438 million foreign total last year. Next weekend, Toy Story 3 will add eight new territories, including Australia and India.


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Though why do they still have China at $9.5m?

Perhaps they're including additional days (THR, Screen Daily, etc. do it all the time for Hollywood films in Japan). When do films normally open in China? And/or BOM is using an incorrect exchange rate which happens often enough. Then again, the number seems to be reported by Disney, so the latter likely isn't the case.

Edit: Meant when do films open in China

Was just looking at the upcoming movies of 2011/2012 and both are filled with Pixar's sequels. Cars 2 and then Monsters Inc 2. I wonder if this is going to hurt the studio in the long run.Three straight years of sequels.

We all know that Cars is probably the weakest out of Pixar's results the past decade and Monsters Inc, a full 11 years after the original. Is there really an appetite for these movies? While i can't deny Pixar, i just wonder whether this is going to hurt Pixar in the long run and we'll see a true dissapointment in the wings.

The only reason I can tolerate the idea of Cars 2 is that it gives them the chance to redeem their one misstep.

And that's $2.4mln. What a disaster.

The 31.5m yuan was the 5-day total.

I guess they are going with the mistake and might drop it in the coming weekend. Or otherwise the numbers from other countries are a bit more (the current numbers are too far less) and somehow were added to China

It would have been had Inception stuck with the July 15 release date. Aftershock and Salt would have decimated its screens. Not to mention The Last Airbender the week after and Karate Kid the week after that.

Inception is now being released on July 29 and is facing off against The Last Airbender so Toy Story 3 will benefit huge during its first 2 weeks of release.

So is $9.5m the 5-Day total then...Wed to Friday?

How's Toy Story 3 and Inception tracking in Hong Kong. I've got a worrying feeling about The Last Airbender in Asia, i think it may breakout and gross huge on opening....along the same lines as Mummy 3

The first wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that appealing.....it was probably the most US focused movie of them all...hence the less than blistering international grosses. The 2nd one i'm thinking will serve up more of the same, do we seriously expect a Toy Story 2 style increase from the original.

Well, the oriignals didn't grossed that well....so perhaps this is not unexpected afterall? no? Looks like at this rate its end total won't even beat Shrek 4's OW.

What a disaster...LOL

RUSSIA - Opening Weekend

Shrek 4 - $20m (2,833,078 adms./ 604.1m Roubles - 700)
Avatar - $19,596,446 (2,563,963 adms./ 601.9m Roubles - 750/1300p or 353 3D Screens)
Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs - $18.9m (2,927,644 adms. - 589m Roubles)
Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa - $16m (2,984,580 adms.)
Alice In Wonderland - $12.3m (575)
Shrek 3 - $11,657,486 (4-Day - 600)
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time - $9.7m
Kung Fu Panda - $9.2m
Iron Man 2 - $8.2m (650)
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown - $7.6m (460)
Monsters vs. Aliens - $6.9m
Robin Hood - $5.8m (610)
Up - $4.2m (560)
Over The Hedge - $4m (321)
The Simpsons Movie - $3.7m (545)
Ratatouille - $3.3m (300)
Madagascar - $3.1m (290)
Open Season - $3.1m (479)
Toy Story 3 - $2.4m (377,870 adms.)
Flushed Away - $2.1m (334)
Shrek 2 - $2,074,595 (or $2,052,680 without p/v - 205)
Cars - $2m (300)
Surf’s Up - $1.9m (340)
Shark Tale - $1,527,603 (or $1,414,013 without p/v - 180)
Chicken Little - $1.1m (185)
Robots - $1.1m (275)
Happy Feet - $1.1m (315)
The Incredibles - $1m
Finding Nemo - $1m
Monster House - $860,000 (260)
Brother Bear - $346,000
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie - $292,000 (104)

Any reason why TS3 did that bad in Russia?

1. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" are not so popular here. The first movie until recently was not even released on DVD.
2. Relatively low screen count. It also shared many 3-d screens with The Hole which also opened last week.
3. Football World Cup
4. Summer holidays and perfect weather.

And possibily Shrek 4 which has made more than $50m

AUSTRALIA:

Shrek 2 - $13,159,869 (US$9,720,795 or $13,646,848 incl. Tas p/v - 437 SC)
Shrek 3 - $10,338,331 (or $10,344,442 incl. p/v - 477 SC)
Shrek 4 - $4,890,789 (or $9,226,722 incl. p/v - 471 SC)
Shrek 1 - $3,546,724 (US$1,835,398 or $7,606,683/US$2.8m incl. p/v - 325 SC)

After what was a fantastic preview gross of over $3m, Shrek 4 evaporated throughout the week and only grossed a ho hum $4.9m in it's first full weekend of release. The target for Shrke 4 is S3's $34m.

Toy Story 3 opens in Australia tomorrow and will be primed for the school holidays which starts this week in some States. Toy Story 2 ended up grossing around $20m, and i've got a feeling TS3 which blow past that within 2-3 weeks. I'm expecting an opening north of $10m and a finish closer to $40m.

First of all, please don't compare Last Airbender to Mummy 3. Mummy 3 was shit and it was reflected in its HK box office intake. Mummy 3 only finished with a multiplier of 2.2 and never had a weekend drop below 55%. If you exclude the one weekend where it dropped 56%, it dropped 60% or more every other week.

Where was I? Oh, well in terms of box office, Mummy 3 was a sequel. The Last Airbender is not. You don't have to worry about Airbender breaking out. It won't, especially with Inception opening against it. Airbender's opening weekend should be deflated but it'll have better legs than Mummy 3.

Toy Story 3 should do great business. Awareness is very high after the two predecessors were just re-released in theaters 2 months ago. Again, competition is the only reason why I don't see it ending up north of $5m. Hong Kong just doesn't have the screens like other places where they can show 16 different movies simultaneously at the same time. Toy Story 3's gross will start to be affected once Inception and Airbender open. After that, The Karate Kid will provide another roadblock the week after taking more screens away from Toy Story.

It is difficult to track Inception here because there's no other movie quite like it. Other Leo movies, however, have done quite well.

Leo's movies:

Shutter Island - $919,000
Revolutionary Road - $381,000
Body of Lies - $772,000
Blood Diamond - $1,119,000
The Departed - $1,039,000
The Aviator - $929,000
Catch Me If You Can - $2,724,000
Gangs Of New York - missing
All movies before 2002 - unknown

With this new development, Inception should have a bigger total now that it is away from Toy Story 3 and after Aftershock. I think it could realistically hit $2.5m now with the possibility of catching Catch Me If You Can. The thing that worries me, however, is Aftershock. Aftershock is the factor in how all the movies between these 3 weeks will fare. If Aftershock has great WOM and people are anxious to see it, this could backfire for Inception and every other movie including Toy Story 3.

This summer is going to be very hard to predict.

$2.5m is a so so blockbuster i think nowadays in Hong Kong. Most big blockbusters gross north of $4m.

Currently 5pm in Australia, Toy Story's first day of release.

Most of the 5-6pm sessions are about 20-30% full....a couple of the 7pm sessions are about 30-40% FULL. This is the type of movie that will grow into the weekend.

I was predicting a $10m weekend up to this point, though the weakness in the market of late has me concerned. May even drop in around $8-10m instead.

Toy Story has never been that big here. With Shrek still fairly fresh out there, I doubt TS3 will break $8m OW. It will do well over the staggered school holidays though.