Box Office Shocker: 'Titanic 3D' Scores Top Opening of All Time in China

10:43 AM PDT 4/15/2012 by Pamela McClintock

0
0
0
0
0
Email
Print
Comments

UPDATED: The 3D makeover of the classic movie earns $98.9 million in its second weekend internationally, including an astounding $67 million in China; "Titanic" jumps the $200 million mark worldwide in only 12 days.

James Cameron's 3D rerelease of Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet starrer Titanic is a runaway hit in China, where the movie has scored the best opening gross of all time in debuting to $67 million.

Box Office Report: 'Titanic 3D' Launches to Record Numbers in China

'Titanic' Fans Get to Go Down with the Ship in '4DX'

•Box Office Updates

Official numbers released Monday were even stronger than Sunday's estimates, which showed Titanic 3D opening to $58 million -- still the best debut of all time.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon held the previous record, opening to $56 million last year in China on its way to grossing north of $145 million.

The good news for Titanic doesn't end there. The rerelease may have been a slow starter last weekend, but it has since taken off, with a 12-day worldwide cume of $201.6 million and pushing the movie's lifetime gross past the $2 billion mark.

Thanks to the China opening, Titanic 3D easily won the weekend race at the foreign box office, grossing a massive $98.9 million from 69 markets for an international cume of $157.1 million. Fueled by its six-day China launch, the movie beat Universal's Battleship, which earned a projected $58 million as it rolled out in its first 26 markets (Battleship doesn't open in China until next weekend).

IMAX runs contributed $5.8 million of Titanic's global weekend gross, including north of $3 million in China alone. IMAX's 12-day cume is $13.6 million, well ahead of expectations.

In North America, Titanic 3D came in No. 4 for the weekend, falling 32.7 percent to an estimated $11.6 million for a cume of $44.5 million.

Titanic 3D's global cume of $201.6 million eclipses the $178.2 milllion earned worldwide by Disney's 3D release of The Lion King last year. Lion King 3D was a box office hit, grossing $94.2 million domestically and $84 million worldwide for a total $178.2 million.

The 3D conversion of Titanic cost $18 million, and was personally supervised by Cameron.

In China, the opening gross is 32 percent ahead of the lifetime earnings of Titanic, which cumed $44 million when released in China in 1998, itself a record for more than a decade.