It is still too early to tell, but it appears as if Tyler Kitsch, who stars in both John Carter and Battleship, may yet avoid the dubious distinction of having headlined the two biggest flops of 2012. Universal’s $200 million big screen adaptation of Hasbro’s Battleship board game has been widely disparaged and picked as one of 2012’s biggest cinematic disasters, but in spite of poor reviews (the film has earned just a 47% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), the movie earned $58 million over the past weekend as it opened at #1 in 20 of the 26 territories in which it debuted.
Of course the fact that Battleship is opening overseas a full month before its domestic debut on May 18th was seen by many as a sign that the film was a turkey, but it now appears to have been a very smart move on the part of Universal. Effects-heavy blockbusters like the Transformers movies or the later Pirates of the Caribbean efforts typically do much better overseas than they do here, so why not give foreign audiences first shot and let a film build up some momentum before it opens in the jaded U.S. market where special effects and 3D don’t mean much unless they are married to the kind of film American audiences are looking for.
Certainly Disney’s John Carter, which has earned 75% of its box office revenue outside of North America, might have benefited from an overseas-first release. Opening tentpoles outside of North America is a trend that it looks like we will be seeing a lot of in the future. Even Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, which is tracking for a huge opening here (see "'Avengers' Tracking Ahead of 'Dark Knight,' 'Hunger Games'"), is opening on April 28th in a number of key territories, a week before its May 4th U.S. debut.
There are lots of reasons why films open earlier overseas—this spring and summer the European Football (Soccer) Championships will divert attention from the cinemas, which was one of the reasons for Battleship’s early overseas debut. But frankly the box office prospects for a generic, effects-heavy alien invasion movie are better overseas, so the movie should have some momentum when it arrives here on May 18th. As for the critics, well even American audiences don’t pay a whole lot of attention to them when it comes to deciding whether or not to see a major action blockbuster.
Does this opening mean that Battleship will be a success? Well it is often difficult to compare overseas openings since the number of territories is rarely the same, to say nothing of the number of screens available in each territory. John Carter earned $69 million overseas during its debut weekend, but it was in twice as many locations, an indication that Battleship could end up doing considerably better overseas than John Carter, which earned a respectable $200 million outside of North America.
