It’s been a good week for the studios, with 20th Century Fox announcing that they’re the first studio to pass the billion dollar box office mark in international territories (i.e. outside the US and Canada), and Paramount passing the same milestone in America. Fox can thank Ice Age 3’s gargantuan $151.7 opening weekend haul for taking it past the billion mark, adding to solid gross for Wolverine and Night At The Museum 2, as well as other smaller hits like Valkyrie and Bride Wars.
Meanwhile Paramount has set a record, getting to the billion dollar mark in the US earlier in the year than anyone else has ever managed. This is largely due to the massive grosses of Transformers 2 and Star Trek, which alone have already taken more than $550 million at the US box office. Paramount is getting a dab hand at this, as it’s the third year in a row it’s passed the $billion milestone first.
It’s proving to be a bumper year for the studios, with the US summer box office currently running about 5% higher than last year, and overseas doing even better. It really does seem that cinema has become the place people have turned to in order to escape the woes of the recession.