It may have earned dismissals at Cannes and generally unenthusiastic reviews everywhere else, but that won’t slow Ron Howard‘s "Da Vinci Code" down at the international box office. The religious thriller has already earned $410 million worldwide, which makes it one of the biggest global hits of all time.
From The Hollywood Reporter: "Although hardly the darling of film critics, Ron Howard’s "The Da Vinci Code" continues to dominate internationally, accumulating an estimated $52 million during the weekend on 11,625 screens in 84 markets. Overseas boxoffice total to date stands at a lofty $410 million, more than double its U.S. total of $172.7 million. Sony Pictures Releasing International, "Da Vinci’s" distributor, confidently predicts that the film version of Dan Brown‘s best-selling novel will "in the next couple of days" surpass 2002’s "Spider-Man" (overseas gross of $417.9 million) and 2004’s "Spider-Man 2" ($410.5 million) to become SPRI’s biggest international hit ever.
"Da Vinci" in its third weekend opened in the United Arab Emirates, notching $690,000 on 34 screens, enough to make it the territory’s third-biggest opening ever. Key holdovers include Japan ($7 million on 857 screens), Italy ($5.7 million at 894 locations), Germany ($5 million at 1,171 spots), France ($3.6 million at 945 screens), the U.K. ($3.6 million from 1,070 locations) and Spain ($3.5 million on 748 screens)."
