For decades, studios released their films worldwide with the confident knowledge that they would be eagerly devoured by movie lovers overseas.
But lately, the slick Hollywood films have been surpassed by local fare. French phenom "Bienvenue les chez Ch'tis" (Welcome to the Sticks) has passed $203 million in only four markets, outpacing the entire international runs of such notable successes as "Ice Age," "The Devil Wears Prada" and "I, Robot."
In Turkey, the comedy "Recep Ivedik" has passed all U.S. blockbusters to become the biggest hit of the year, with $28 million. In Italy, six of the year's top 10 are local productions, led by "Scusa se ti chiamo amore," a romance that grossed $20.1 million. Russia's "Irony of Fate 2" smashed B.O. records this year, and France's "Asterix at the Olympic Games" passed $130 million.
Outwardly, Hollywood execs are offering a positive spin, saying local hits are not cannibalizing their films, but are expanding audiences.
Privately, they're more concerned that international auds are not embracing their product the way they used to. A decade ago, Variety counted the top films in major global territories for the last weekend in April -- and nine out of the top 10 were from Hollywood. This year, for the same weekend, that number had dropped to seven out of 10.
This marks a new phase for the overseas market. From the early days of the studio system through the mid 1990s, international grosses were an afterthought. Then they turned into a bonanza, with international box office surpassing domestic a decade ago; last year, foreign hit $17.1 billion to domestic's $9.6 billion, according to the MPAA.
Now Hollywood stuff is no slam-dunk as foreign countries flock to their own pics in record numbers. That's partly because the locals are more savvy. Local production used to be defined by government-funded, deeply personal films too esoteric to become hits. Now as private funding increases, local filmmakers have more commercial instincts and are increasingly savvy about marketing and distribution. And the building of new plexes in countries like Russia have fueled filmgoing in general. DAILY BOX OFFICE RESULTS
The head of the leading company tracking box-office performance has expressed doubt that this year's blockbusters will reach the heights of those a year ago.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers, is predicting that ticket sales are likely to drop around 5.6 percent from last summer, when studios raked $4.18 billion, largely on revenue from sequels of previous hits, like Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Shrek.
"To get to that level is going to be tough," Dergarabedian told Bloomberg News.
Some hint of what lies in store will come following this weekend, when results for Paramount's Iron Man are tallied. Although many box-office forecasters are predicting that the movie will take in a huge $70-80 million, that will only be around half of what Spider-Man 3 wound up with last year when it debuted with $151 million.
Friday's Los Angeles Times suggested that after receiving glowing reviews, which typically are read by older moviegoers, Iron Man could surprise analysts.
"The giddiest box-office analysts predict an opening of $100 million for Iron Man," the Times observed.
The newspaper described as "harebrained" widespread theorizing that the release of the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV will result in movie audiences staying home to play it. "There's no evidence that those consumers are incapable of doing more than one thing in a single weekend," the Times commented.
Iron Man
Baby Moma
IRON MAN VS SPIDERMAN - WHO WILL WIN?
