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:
- How to Train your Dragon
- Clash of the Titans
- Alice in Wonderland
- Avatar
- Percy Jackson and the . . . Thief
- Alvin . . The Squeakquel
- 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.