EXCLUSIVE: Ridley Scott’s scifi thriller won’t debut in the U.S. or Canada until June 8th but it’s already started selling movie tickets in France. Fox’s Prometheus opened with $1.5M (Euros 1.12m) for #1 in the market and 40% market share. It was the 2nd highest opening day of 2012, behind The Avengers but 20% ahead of Men In Black 3 and 87% ahead of The Hunger Games. In fact pre-sales for Prometheus in a number of countries are many times the MIB3 levels and should increase now that reviews are coming out and the public is getting a taste of the long-secret story and visuals that is/isn’t a prequel to the Alien franchise. (Oh for crissakes, Fox, just brand it already…) The 9-day jump on foreign box office is due to the Euro Cup beginning June 8th and running through July 1st, so Twentieth Century Fox wants to open box office early for its big summer blockbuster.

It is debuting 15 international markets (20 countries) this weekend — including the UK, France, Russia, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Scandinavia – on 4,700 screens, of which 3,300 are 3D. Right now UK presales are around $1.6M (£1m) already. And the IMAX Southbank alone has sold $810K (£500k) making it the largest ever presales at this screen. After that, Prometheus will open day and date in  35 international markets (49 countries) next weekend, including South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan. That will ensure Ridley Scott’s scifi thriller will play on a total 8,000 screens, of which 5,000 are 3D. Most of Latin America is releasing June 14-15, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Releasing later, to avoid the Euro Cup, is host countries Poland and Ukraine, as well as Germany, Spain and Italy. Japan is releasing in August because it was the best circuit booking available in the Nichigeki 1.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.