INTERNATIONAL
Universal's international division reported that A Beautiful Mind got off to an excellent start internationally this weekend. The Universal/Dreamworks co-production from Imagine Entertainment is being distributed internationally by UIP for DreamWorks while Universal is releasing it domestically. A Beautiful Mind film opened this weekend in France, Brazil, Belgium, Israel and Finland.
In France, A Beautiful Mind grossed $0.14 million at 334 theaters on opening day. Universal said its weekend grosses will be available on Monday.
In Brazil, A Beautiful Mind opened in first place with an ESTIMATED two day gross of $0.48 million with 150 playdates.
Spy Game, in its fourth weekend in Australia, held there in eighth place with $0.19 million at 194 theaters. Its cume after 25 days is $3 million. Including its release in Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, Universal's international cume for the film is $5.5 million. Spy Game, which is in its 12th week of overall international release, has a combined international total for Universal and other distributors of $63 million.
American Pie 2 continued at 106 theaters in Mexico in its sixth week, where its cume is now $5.2 million.
American Pie 2, which is still in release in several countries, has an international cume of $138 million.
WEEKEND COMPARISONS
Key films--those grossing more than $500,000--took in approximately $161.47 million, up about 15.6 percent from last year when they totaled $139.68 million.
Key films for the four day holiday weekend cannot be compared to the previous weekend of this year, which was a normal three day weekend.
Last year, MGM's second week of Hannibal was first with $33.5 million at 3,238 theaters ($10,346 per theater); and Paramount's opening week of Down to Earth was second with $20.03 million at 2,521 theaters ($7,944 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $53.5 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $42.0 million.