Hollywood Scoring Big Overseas

The Hollywood Reporter uses the final overseas box office figures of the year to point out the oodles of money Hollywood movies are making around the world. "The Da Vinci Code," "Ice Ager: The Meltdown" and "Casino Royale" are just a few of the movies that DOUBLED their US box office overseas. Many more examples abound. Oddly, the HR doesn't list the total overseas box office. It used to be an afterthought. Then the overseas box office began to equal the US box office (though most of the time Hollywood only took it into account for summer spectacles). And now the overseas box office is bigger and growing. Since there are billions of people around the world and only 330 million people in North America, it is inevitable that the overseas box office will one day (perhaps soon) be at least double if not triple the amount that Hollywood makes at the US box office. So the next time someone starts talking about a "slump" at the box office, when you bring up DVD sales, bring up the exploding overseas box office as well.