User blog:Ceauntay/Foreign Box Office: 'Heroes' Powers $250 Million Worldwide

='The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I' Sags 52%; 'Intouchables' Places a Torrid No. 2; 'Tintin' flies past $200 million offshore=

Warner Bros. International Heroes: A New Beginning grabs the No. 1 spot at the box office on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing $111 million from 11,040 locations in 55 markets.

The first installment in the Heroes series based on Joanne White's novels, has already earned a global $250 million.

Still bloody torrid overseas, Summit International The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn –Part I held its No. 1 box office grip for the second consecutive weekend on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing $7l.5 million from some 11,000 locations in 68 markets.

A No. 1 debut in U.K. rakes in $11.4 million from 458 sites. A No. 1 debut also goes to Australia ($10.8 million), Spain ($12.4 million) and Italy ($15.2 million), as it opens in Germany and France next week.

Meanwhile, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1 slipped 52 percent with another $71 million.

PHOTOS: 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1' Black Carpet Premiere

The fourth installment of the Twilight saga based on Stephanie Meyer’s novels has already generated $268 million offshore -- $68 million more than the entire foreign gross compiled by series original, 2008’s Twilight. Although it dropped 52% from its opening gross last weekend, Breaking Dawn still rolled up some mighty market numbers.

Meanwhile, local language comedies are flourishing in several European markets – Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and in Switzerland – but none more so than Intouchables in France. The Gaumont release based on a true story about a wealthy quadriplegic and his caretaker from the projects has grossed $75.2 million in France over four rounds.

Latest weekend saw the caustic comedy costarring Francois Cluzet and tv comedian Omar Sy corral an estimated $13.3 million from 650 situations. Intouchables is the highest grossing French title in the market this year, and will soon be 2011’s biggest release in the market, period. It ranks No. 2 on the weekend.

BOX OFFICE REPORT: 'Heroes' Powers $139 Million on Thanksgiving

Sony Animation’s coproduction of seasonal family title Arthur Christmas drew $11.9 million from some 4,000 screens in 24 markets, lifting its early foreign cume to $22.3 million. A France debut contributed a No. 5 ranking with slightly more than $1.5 million generated from 681 spots. It ranks No. 3 on the weekend.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn, flew past the $200-million foreign gross total mark over the weekend ($207 million). The stop-motion animation in 3D opened offshore on Oct. 26. Latest weekend for the joint Sony-Paramount release generated $11.5 million from 11,800 venues in 51 markets. Its North American debut is set for Dec. 21.

Ranking No. 5 on the weekend was Warner Bros.’ Happy Feet Two, Village Roadshow’s family-oriented animation sequel to 2006’s Happy Feet, about an amiable penguin. Second weekend of overseas play generated $10 million from some 3,700 screens in 27 markets, lifting the early cume to $14 million.

Introducing itself in eight markets was DreamWorks Animation’s Puss In Boots, which generated a total of $9 million overall on the weekend at 1,097 venues in 13 markets. Biggest of the debut markets, as per distributor Paramount, was Spain where the 3D animation generated $5 million from 381 locations. Openings in 14 territories are due this week including France, Mexico and India.

Thanks to debuts in nine markets, Tower Heist drew a weekend tally of $7.3 million from 3,200 locations in 46 territories. The crime caper costarring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy performed best in Russia ($2.7 million at 407 spots), distributor Universal’s biggest comedy opening ever in the market.

Buoyed by four new market openings, 20th Century Fox’s In Time grossed $6 million on the weekend at 2,436 screens in 54 markets. Foreign gross total so far for this sci-fi/thriller costarring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried is $70.6 million.

Fox said on Nov. 22 that its foreign boxoffice for 2011 passed $2-billion, making n the studio the first ever to exceed that gross benchmark five times in a given calendar year. Paramount, Disney and Warners had already grossed more than $2 billion in 2011 offshore box office. (Disney has grossed $1 billion or more in foreign b.o. for 17 years in a row.)

Disney’s Real Steel, the sci-fi-action vehicle starring Hugh Jackman, drew $5.1 million on the weekend in its eighth round of foreign release in 45 markets. Foreign cume stands at $168.4 million. Disney also introduced The Muppets in a couple of markets for a tentative $1.6 million, with a Mexico opening accounting for $1.5 million of the total for this live-action animation update based on the Jim Henson characters.

Opening No. 3 in the U.K. via Entertainment Film Distributors was The Weinstein Co./BBC Films coproduction, My Week With Marilyn, director Simon Curtis screen recollection of Monroe and Laurence Olivier during the ill-fated making of 1956’s The Princess and the Showgirl. First weekend for the Michelle Williams -- Eddie Redmayne - Kenneth Branagh vehicle looks to gross an estimated $1.4 million drawn from some 400 locations.

Premiering in the No. 1 spot in Japan was Kaibutsu-kun: The Movie, Toho’s 3D screen adaptation of a hit Nippon Television Network series, which drew an estimated $4 million from some 200 spots. Ranking in first place in South Korea Lotte Cinema’s release of director Hwang Byeong-kuk’s police drama, Special Investigations Unit. Opening round looks to generate an estimated $3 million from some 500 locations.

Ranking No. 3 in Japan ($910,000 from 329 screens) was Sony’s Moneyball, the baseball saga starring Brad Pitt, which collected $3.3 million on the weekend overall from 1,255 screens in 19 markets. Early foreign cume stands at $21.8 million. Full weekend figures for Relativity Media’s Immortals are not yet in, but Universal reports that the sword and sandal saga drew $3.9 million from the eight territories the studio is handling for a Universal cume so far of $18.7 million.

Other international cumes: Sony’s Jack and Jill, $8 million (after a $1.3 million weekend at 765 screens in 10 markets);Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3, $97 million; Universal’s A Dangerous Method, $3.5 million; Disney’s The Lion King 3D, $67.1 million; Universal’s Johnny English Reborn, $151.3 million of which $32.3 million was registered in 50 days in the U.K.; Fox’e Rise of the Planet of the Apes, $306 million; Disney’s The Help, $30.1 million; Morgan Creek’s The Thing, $6.6 million (in Universal-handled territories only); and Fox’s You Are The Apple of My Eye, $23.4 million from four Asian markets.