MUMBAI: On its foreign debut, the sci-fi film Looper did impressive business with a gross of $36 million over the weekend with most of the intake coming from China. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, Looper is a Chinese co-production between Jim Stern‘s Endgame Entertainment and China‘s DMG.
The film opened at No. 1 in China with an estimated $24 million, a lot, lot more than its US intake of $21.2 million.
Worldwide, Looper took in $57.2 million, the best number of the weekend. Sony‘s Hotel Transylvania debuted to $43 million domestically and $8.1 million internationally from 13 markets for a global total of $51.1 million.
The film also opened in Russia ($4.5 million), the U.K. ($3.6 million) and Australia ($2.9 million). Glen Basner‘s Film Nation Entertainment handled the film internationally, while Sony‘s TriStar is releasing it domestically in tandem with Film District and Endgame.
Placing No. 2 at the international box office over the weekend was Resident Evil: Retribution that grossed $20.7 million from 6,460 venues in 65 markets. This brings the total overseas gross for the fifth title in director-producer Paul S.W. Anderson‘s action/sci-fi series.
A No. 3 U.K. opening at 355 locations delivered $1.25 million while a No. 2 Italy debut came up with $1.4 million at 290 spots. Retribution opened No.1 in India, and held top rankings in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand and Venezuela.
The latest Resident Evil is being distributed in most foreign markets by Sony, which has tallied a cumulative of $127.1 million. Another distributor, the film‘s German co-producer Constantin, has raked in 9.9 million in all thus far.