The BO balance for Hollywood

Scanning the weekly BO report.

Of the 55 films listed, only 14 have bigger foreign BO than domestic, which isn't surprising, because the list is US-centric.

But the foreign-heavy numbers appear primarily in the tent-pole, or blockbuster films, such that, when you add up the total BO for all of the 55 films, the foreign revenue accounts for almost exactly 1/2 of total BO, or $4.4B out of $8.9B).

Those tent-poles films with higher international BO are:

1. How to Train your Dragon
2. Clash of the Titans
3. Alice in Wonderland
4. Avatar
5. Percy Jackson and the . . . Thief
6. Alvin . . The Squeakquel
7. Sherlock Holmes.

In that septet, the foreign share is 66%.  That means their foreign audiences pay the bulk of the tab for the prestige films back here.

There are only 10 blockbusters (over $200M) listed.  Besides the 7 above, there's Shutter Island, Blind Side and Valentine's Day.  Only Blind Side is primarily US BO (85%). The other two are slightly US-heavy.  Blind Side is unlikely to do well overseas, because the football theme doesn't travel.