International Box Office: Madagascar 3 reigns for a third week

This past weekend was all about animations, fairy tales and sci-fi with Madagascar 3 on top for a 3rd consecutive time. Snow White and the Huntsman remained strong in 2nd while Brave opened in 3rd.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted pulled in another $35.4 million, down just 34% for a total of $214.1 million internationally. Worldwide the talking animals are at $377.4 million making this currently the 4th highest grossing film of 2012. Now Madagascar has always been extremely popular all over the world so expect this 3rd one to go even higher in the coming weeks, probably finishing somewhere around $650 million worldwide.

Snow White and the Huntsman is ever more impressive with its great week-over-week holds, this time dropping only 23% for an estimated $23.6 million. Internationally it adds up to $168.2 million while the number worldwide is $307.6 million. Just $40 million more and Snow White and the Huntsman will double its $170 million production budget, making this not only Universal’s biggest film of 2012 (so far) but also start to turn a profit, something we don’t see too often from them when it comes to big budget films (look at Battleship).

Brave opened in 3rd place with $14 million from 10 countries. As we’ve come to expect from Pixar films, Brave will have a staggered release around the world, trying to avoid other popular animations like Madagascar 3 and Ice Age: Continental Drift (starting to roll out today in France and other countries). Since Brave is after all an original property, Disney are very careful with the release schedule. At this point it’s too soon to tell where Brave might end up. The best I can do is look into the past and tell you that with the exception of Toy Story back in 1995, all Pixar films have made more than $200 million internationally, the most recent ones ranging from $300 million (WALL-E) to over $600 million (Toy Story 3).

Men in Black 3 was 4th with $12.9 million, sitting at $418.1 million internationally (2nd best this year) and $583.4 million worldwide. Almost unbelievable that this is now just $6 million shy of Men in Black (1997) and its phenomenal $589.4 million. For Will Smith Men in Black 3 will become the 3rd highest grossing film of his career (Hancock is 2nd with $624.4 million, hard but not impossible to reach).

Prometheus rounds out the top 5 with $12.7 million and a worldwide total of $264.9 million.