“The Dark Knight” may still be number one in the hearts of Western audiences, but moviegoers all across Asia and other countries have cast their vote, in the way of box office, and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” conquered 28 overseas markets and captured top spot with nearly $60 million for the weekend.
“Emperor” took in more than the combined total the films trailing it — “The Dark Knight,” at $37 million in 51 markets and the CGI film of the year “Wall-E” bringing in almost $16 million in 24 markets.
As usual, the hot spot for “Tomb of the Emperor” in Asia was South Korea, but other nations such as Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Russia also led the way giving the Brendan Fraser-Jet Li fantasy-action film a huge boost.
Not lagging too far behind were Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey, with Eastern Europe also on board giving the film their number one or two spot as well.
Not doing so well in an over-crowed SF theater market was Chris Carter’s “X-Files: I Want To Believe,” which did, as in the United States, only fair to moderate box office in most overseas markets. However, still going strong after a month in those same countries are “Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and the CGI/animated film that just won’t slow down, “Kung Fu Panda.” Each of these two films are still showing impressive numbers in every market they are shown in.
