FOREIGN BOX OFFICE HURTLES PAST DOMESTIC

The summer box office may be down nearly 4 percent from a year ago domestically, but it is up 64 percent through May overseas, Daily Variety reported today (Wednesday), citing studio estimates. The statistic is even more impressive given the fact that many overseas currencies have declined against the dollar since the beginning of the year, the trade publication observed, pointing in particular to the 15-percent decline of the euro. Currency fluctuation, however, has not affected China, where the government only recently allowed its currency to rise a few cents against the dollar, and where box office revenue has increased a whopping 189 percent from the same period a year ago. In Russia, it has risen 70 percent. Variety quoted David Kornblum, Disney’s head of international sales and distribution as saying, “There are multiple examples of overperforming titles internationally. … Most everyone knows this is where the money is being made now.”