In the light of the release of House of Flying Daggers, I decided to take a look at the box-office of this year's foreign movies. This year has been decent for foreign movies so far. While none of them broke box-office records a couple did a pretty decent amount of money and others still keep going in theatres. However, none has reached Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon standards. Put of all, it was the long-delayed Hero that managed to become the year's most successful foreign movie (with the exception of The Passion of the Christ which I don't really consider foreign)


Here are this year's most successful foreign movies so far:

1. Hero - $53,614,094
2. The Motorcycle Diaries - $16,781,387
3. House of Flying Daggers - $11,050,094
4. Maria full of Grace - $6,529,624
5. A Very Long Engagement - $6,524,389
6. Bad Education - $5,211,842
7. Good Bye, Lenin - $4,064,200
8. Veer Zaara - $2,938,532
9. Spring, Summer, Fall Winter...and Spring - $2,380,788
10. Intimate Strangers - $2,110,589
11. The Sea Inside - $2,057,686 *
12. Main Hoon Na - $1,722,453
13. I'm not Scared - $1,615,328
14. Swades - $1,223,240
15. Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman - $1,118,163
16. Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War - $1,111,061
17. Rosenstrasse - $734,519
18. Twilight Samurai - $559,765
19. Love me if you Dare - $553,129
20. Shaolin Soccer - $489,600
21. Strayed - $482,757
22. Zelary - $330,033
23. Ju-On: The Grudge - $325,680
24. Valentin - $275,968
25. Moolade - $199,292 *


* - still in release


I only listed movies that made at least $0.1 million at the US-box-office this year.

I updated the list. Not such an amazing year for foreign movies.

The only real standouts are:

Hero -- first place debut for a foreign-language film. Other then The Passion of the Christ this is a first, correct?

The Motercycle Diaries -- its a shame how bad the release platform for this was. With an opening weekend $50,000 PTA, to only make $15 million is, in my opinion, a dissapointment.

The rest have been dissapointments in my opinion. Particularly Shoalin Soccer. If Miramax (?) had gone through with a wide release of the original dubbed version, the film could easily have made 50 times what it made.

The studio just dropped the ball on it :?

And, yes, Hero was the first foreign flick to debut at #1.

I still want to see Motercycle diaries. Perhaps when it is released on DVD.

I havent seen any forign films this year, but id like to see House of teh Flying Daggers, Shaolin Soccer and Hero.

Out of the ones that are still in release, House of Flying Daggers and A Very Long Engagement are the only ones that stand a chance at crossing $10 million

It is also remarkable, how horrible The Sea Inside is doing cosidering that it should be getting lots of Oscar buzz and the fact that the reviews are really good :?

I think they screwed up the marketing completely. Javier Bardem is still mostly unknown to Amercian audience, but there is no reason that it shouldn't do at least as good as Before Night Falls. Maybe it's the subject matter, and probably it's because December is simply too crowded with art-house movies. I thought with Oscar moving forward, there will be more movies such as Mystic River and Lost in Translation that start platform release earlier in October and November, but still too many indies are released in December this year. As a result, no one film stands out in the PTA department. It's a great choice that Sideways and Finding Neverland went earlier. Otherwise, they would all be competing with Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator for buzz.

I think a lot of it has to do with the subject matter. The right to die is a touchy issue in America, and I don't think audiences were quite ready for a film on that.

Azian movies the Best ( Hero and Zatoichi my favorite 2004 yers ) . rink:

It still really surprises me. I mean, Bad Education is rated NC17 and is doing much much better, even hough the movie doesn't really have much oscar buzz :?

I updated the list.

Bad Education, House of Flying Daggers and A Very Long Engagement keep working their way up into the TOP 10. House of Flying Daggers is already the 4th biggest foreign movie. House of Flying Daggers has a chance to become 2004's 2nd biggest foreign movie actually, while A Very Long Engagement is sure to enter the TOP 5 soon.

Yes, I just looked at the weekend actuals and saw that House of Flying Daggers had a nice increase! Its average per theater is also quite promising! $15m is not out of reach!

Once again, I updated the list. A Very Long Engagement is holding on to a good PTA, but considering the fact that the movie most likely won't have much oscar glory to boot, it is in a real need for an expansion in order to make significantly more money. However, its spot in last year's TOP 10 of foreign movies is already assured.

I added the highly-praised Moolaade to the list.

The NC-17-rated Bad Education continues climbing up the list.

BAD EDUCATION would beat THE DREAMERS and becomes the fifth-highest grossing NC-17 film in US of all time.

What are the other four? #1 is most likely Showgirls.

I believe so. Evil Dead should be on the list if you count it as NC-17 as it was re-rated in the 90's. Blockbuster still rents the "Not Rated" DVD though.

1 Showgirls (MGM) $20,350,754 1995
2 Henry & June (Universal) $11,567,449 1990
3 The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Miramax) $7,724,701 1990
4 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Miramax) $4,087,361 1990

Interesting. Thanks for finding that mary.

Thank you.

Unbelievable that Showgirls made that much

Bad Education will at least become #4 by the end of its run. High Tension will probably get the 2nd spot when it's released later this year.

You people are welcome :razz:

I also hope that INSIDE DEEP THROAT, a $2 million documentary, can become a surprise hit. It is backed by the marketing and distribution muscles of a major studio(Universal Pictures) itself, not a major studio's specialty films division .

- A Very Long Engagement is expanding to 250 locations this weekend

- House of Flying Daggers is expanding to 1,500+ locations this weekend


House of Flying Daggers should be able to make at least $5 million over the weekend. It will overtake The Motorcycle Diaries eventually and become the year's 2nd biggest foreign movie.

The Sea Inside wins Best Foreign Film at Golden Globes.

Based on the case of "No man's land", The Sea Inside would gross more than $1 million, but not much. (Fine Line paid more than $5 million to acquire "The Sea Inside".)
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2001/NOMAN.html

Well, as of now, I still consider it close to a lock for the Best Foreign Picture win. That will surely help its box-office, but I don't see it passing $2 million.

Well the Sea inside won.