R.I.P. James Gandolfini 
Photos: James Gandolfini, 1961-2013 
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EXCLUSIVE… 3RD UPDATE: Warner Bros Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures‘ 2D The Dark Knight Rises began its international release Thursday by “dominating everywhere”, according to my sources. I’ve learned the foreign gross so far is an incredible $10.4M from only 9 countries. This is 83% higher than 2008′s The Dark Knight in the same markets. (Not calculating for inflation and higher ticket prices.)
The 3 key territories that opened today were:
Australia: AUD$3.66M (US$3.74M) from 628 screens. That’s 60% ahead of The Dark Knight‘s opening day. “This is particularly spectacular considering that today is not a holiday versus TDK’s holiday opening day,” an exec tells me. As good as Chris Nolan’s Batpic finale’s opening day is, it was well below Marvel’s The Avengers, which smashed the Australian box office on its opening day of release with a record breaking AUD$6M (USD$6.2M). Of course Avengers was 3D and also opened on one of Australia’s biggest public holidays: ANZAC. Whereas The Dark Knight Rises opening didn’t include a holiday.
Korea: KRW 3.15b (US$2.7m) from 1059 screens, which is 131% higher than The Dark Knight‘s opening.
Taiwan: NT$ 26.3m (US$878k) from 228 screens, which is 175% ahead of The Dark Knight.
Related: ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Breaking ‘Avengers’ Midnight Record
PREVIOUS 7:15 PM: Sydney-based Deadline contributor Don Groves reports that The Dark Knight Rises blazed into Australia’s cinemas and IMAX, grossing in excess of AUD$3.5M in its first day on screens and making it the #1 movie in the country. (Marvel’s The Avengers, which smashed the Australian box office on its opening day of release, took in a record breaking AUD$6M (USD$6.2M). That was the #2 all-time opening behind Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2‘s AUD$7M.) Chris Nolan’s Batman finale was released Down Under on Thursday to mostly rave reviews by the local film critics. This was its first foreign rollout.
Warner Bros this coming weekend is releasing The Dark Knight Rises into only 17 international markets, representing 6,300 screens. These include 4 of the Top Ten movie markets: UK, Spain, Australia, and Korea. The Dark Knight Rises already has taken £1 million in advance booking at BFI IMAX, breaking all previous sales records.
The studio will open another 40 markets over the second weekend and include all major markets with the exception of Italy (August) and China where The China Film Group, which sets release dates for U.S. films, wants to pit The Dark Knight Rises against Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man on August 30th. “That August date is not written in stone, and we are in talks with China Film to find a date that works for everybody,” a Warner Bros exec tells Deadline. “Warner Bros would never not release the film in China.” In total overseas, the film is projected to show on approximately 20,000 foreign screens.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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What’s a matter Deadline? Can’t take an update? I reported that DARK KNIGHT had been pulled by Chinese censors and schedulers. And you 86′d by post. I also questioned the much ballyhooed U.S./Chinese new era of censorship and quota restrictions. Too hot for you huh?
My guess is this will do about 600 million in foreign boxoffice, maybe a little more.
If it can pull that off, the domestic total only to be 400 for a billion, and that shouldn’t be too hard.
To be fair, didn’t The Avengers open on Anzac Day in Australia, which is a public holiday and so naturally would have made more than TDKR’s Thursday opening?
Good Catch — honestly is this whole thing always gonna be avengers vs dark knight? Ugh, it’s just not fair because avengers had the 3D surcharges and certainly doesn’t mean that just because one movie outgrosses another that the other is better and vice versa.
I found this quote from a Deadline article: “Internationally, two nations, Australia and New Zealand, were having holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office.” Also, Australia is Thor’s home turf, another (perhaps slight) advantage for THE AVENGERS.
Australia will actually be more in the $3.7m-$3.8m range by the time the full day figures come in. Should be a $50m+ grosser for WB/RDS – WOOHOO!! GO TEAM AUSTRALIA!
I am not too shocked that TDKR didn’t beat The Avengers. If you look at The Dark Knight’s numbers, it was certainly successful on the international front, but it was far more of a US winner than an International one.
As another commenter kindly pointed out, The Avengers opened on a public holiday in Australia – so this isn’t a fair comparison by any means. Plus, The Dark Knight was a slow-burner – I’m sure this will be too (to an extent of course).
Why don’t blockbusters open in the US first anymore? Can someone please let me know. This bugs me.
Movies open on Thursdays here in NZ but because of the time difference it’s more like two days earlier. Opened 19th here, 20th for the US, not that big a gap.
International box office accounts for sometimes as much as 70% of a film’s global take and studios like to get a jump on that process.
TDKR will be weak overseas because of TASM and Ice Age 4. Spider-Man as a character is much more popular in many of the major markets and TASM is likely to still be pulling in decent weekly grosses for another month. And the Ice Age films are foreign juggernauts. Ice Age 3 is the biggest animated movie ever overseas, and Ice Age 4 probably still has potentially another half billion dollars (no, I’m not kidding) to pull out of the foreign markets. The Dark Knight, by comparison, faced a pretty open field and still only made about $475 million. The Olympics will also mute the UK grosses, and most of the overseas market growth has been felt by 3-D properties. I’d guess $500 million foreign for TDKR and I’d bet TDKR skews even more domestic in the end.
Considering how mediocre Dark Knight did in Korea ($16 million), it is no surprise that the latest is outpacing it. Korea is not a Batman country at all … Much more into giant robots.
Saw the film last night in London and gave it a 6 out of 10. Found myself clock watching after only 60 minutes! Very long film and no need for it to be so long, a lot of the exposition wasn’t necessary.
For me it was better than the first, but not as good as the second.
In regard to the mass shooting, I have feared something like this would happen for years, ever since 911. We’ll now be looking at metal detectors being placed in movie theaters everywhere. I hope that Rush Limbaugh’s recent, and very reckless, anti Batman comments have nothing to do with motivating the gunman. This is very sad, that our world is not a better place. God bless and protect the victims and their loved ones. Amen.