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Monday, April 24th, 2017 3:06 PM

Live Poll: Worldwide Blockbusters That Lack Domestic Appeal

These select movies accomplished what few films ever have; they became international hits with relatively meager box office contributions from American and Canadian moviegoers. Despite wide domestic theater releases, all accumulated 25% or less of their total worldwide box office from North American audiences. In spite of this, all these films raked in at least $250 million in worldwide ticket sales. In comparison, most blockbuster movies typically get a kick start of about 35-55% of their worldwide gross from North American moviegoers alone. Source: Box Office Mojo Which of these worldwide blockbusters* with more appeal to global audiences than North American ticket buyers is the best? * limit one domestic wide release movie per franchise See the partial list of international movie blockbusters not favored by North American (domestic) moviegoers here: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls069799571/ Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/NXpVYq7qaE8/

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8 years ago

Honorable Mentions Top 500 International Box Office Blockbusters with a minimum $250 million worldwide Box Office and below 25% cut-off, but either had less than a 700 North American theater count or 5.4 or below IMDb rating. These movies did not fit the poll parameters, despite failing to have a substantial domestic box office. The reason for a weak North American box office, rather than having appeal to North American audiences and tastes, the movies simply weren't very good or had no opportunity due to limited distribution. Sub 5.5 IMDb rated un-American movies 22.1%  A Good Day to Die Hard  3553 theaters 20.4% The Smurfs 2 3867 theaters 13.0%  xXx: The Return of Xander Cage 3651 theaters Limited North American release (less than 700 theaters)  un-American movies 00.6% The Mermaid (Mei ren yu) 106 theaters 02.9% The Intouchables 194+ theaters 01.2%  Your Name. 311 theaters 00.0% Monster Hunt 45 theaters 00.5% Mojin: The Lost Legend 34 theaters 00.5% Lost in Hong Kong 27 theaters 00.1% Kung Fu Yoga 34 theaters

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FYI North American Foreign Language Success Stories 60.0% Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Box Office Mojo 2,027 theaters 25.1% Life Is Beautiful (1998) - Box Office Mojo 1,136 theaters 30.3% Hero (2004) - Box Office Mojo 2,175 theaters 44.9% Instructions Not Included (2013) - Box Office Mojo 978 theaters 45.2% Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - Box Office Mojo 1,143 theaters 19.1% Amelie (2001) - Box Office Mojo  303 theaters Domestic Box Office totals likely represent a North America split of 90% USA and 10% Canadian on average.

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8 years ago

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

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8 years ago

urbanemovies, You may wish to change un-American to non-American. un-American http://www.onelook.com/?w=un-american&ls=a&loc=home_ac_un-American adjective:  considered contrary to the best interests of the United States non-American https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/non-american adjective: Not American.

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I agree the proper usage is trickier than one might think. I gave great thought to the use the term before using it. Un as a prefix simply means "not". There are dozens of definitions for Un-american and while I agree it doesn't match the one definition you cite. I think the definition you cite is more consistent with anti-American. By Un-american, I mean simply not consistent with American tastes, interests and values, rather than anti-American. Non-American, I think implies not made or produced in America, which means something completely different and not what I intended. The common thread of these movies is they did not connect with American audiences as well as they did with global audiences, rather not being made in or by Americans. The whole idea of the poll suggestion is to point out the past rarity of achieving international blockbusters status without catering to American tastes and securing American support. Only forty films out five hundred have broken the $250 million box office threshold with out at least a 25 share from North America. Most blockbusters secure a third to half their total from North America, something that seems to be changing. All the options are imperfect, due to the connotations people associate beyond the actual meaning. I think Un-American is the most accurate and says what I mean. The term also highlights the ethnocentric nature of blockbusters that only 8% of international blockbusters achieved the distinction without the support of 5% of the world's population, North America. I find the list interesting primarily because it begs the question of why these movies didn't play well in America. While other international blockbusters, like The Blind Side, Ghostbusters, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are at the complete other end of the spectrum garnering 75% or more of their worldwide gross from North American audiences.  I tried to further re-enforce and clarify the neutral usage of the term in the introduction and by restating the question as appealing to tastes other than American (ie more global appeal) Which international blockbuster* of this decidedly un-American bunch or alternatively from this group with more global appeal is the best?

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I find the question confusing.. Try to keep it simple. I get what you mean by "un-American", but a different title could be something like "Truly International Blockbusters".

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I simplified the question. Which international blockbuster* with more appeal to global audiences than American ones is the best? * limit one domestic wide release movie per franchise I thought the purpose of the title is to get people click through to find out more, it seems to be accurate and attention grabbing as is. Added 3 low rated blockbuster titles back into list, still  limited distribution movie exclusion 22.1%  A Good Day to Die Hard  3553 theaters 20.4% The Smurfs 2 3867 theaters 13.0%  xXx: The Return of Xander Cage 3651 theaters

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revised titleWorldwide Blockbusters That Lack Domestic Appealrevised introduction and questionThese select movies accomplished what few films ever have; they became international hits with relatively meager box office contributions from American and Canadian moviegoers. Despite wide domestic theater releases, all accumulated 25% or less of their total worldwide box office from North American audiences. In spite of this, all these films raked in at least $250 million in worldwide ticket sales. By comparison, in the past most blockbuster movies typically get a kick start of about 35-55% of their worldwide gross from North American moviegoers alone. Source: Box Office MojoWhich of these worldwide blockbusters* with more appeal to global audiences than North American ticket buyers is the best? * limit one domestic wide release movie per franchise

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urbanemovies,I've updated the title of this thread to reflect the updated title of your list.

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Thanks, much appreciated.

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8 years ago

The Full Monty

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8 years ago

2012 (2009)

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$1 billion bump Fate of Furious 18.2%

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Warcraft 

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Honorable Mention Limited Releases The Intouchables 2011 | Movie 8.5 (641,646) 2.8% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results Your Name. 2016 | Movie 8.4 (112,603) 1.4% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office ResultsBox Office Results The Mermaid 2016 | Movie 6.3 (6,784) 0.6% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results Detective Chinatown 2 2018 | Movie 6.1 (1,004) 0.4% North American Gross/Worldwide Total Gross Wolf Warrior 2 2017 | Movie 6.2 (4,924) 0.3% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results Operation Red Sea 2018 | Movie 6.9 (3,442)   0.3% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results

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6 years ago

Honorable Mentions (100,000 or less IMDb votes and 7.0- IMDb rated) The Smurfs 2 2013 | Movie 5.4 (33,008)   20.4% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results xXx: Return of Xander Cage 2017 | Movie 5.2 (73,908) 13.0% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 2004 | Movie 6.0 (91,980) 15.3% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results Penguins of Madagascar 2014 | Movie 6.7 (70,293) 22.3% North American Gross/Worldwide Total GrossBox Office Results

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6 years ago

Spirited Away. 

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6 years ago

Congratulations, urbanemovies!Worldwide Blockbusters That Lack Domestic AppealLive Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/NXpVYq7qaE8/

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Congratulations urbanemovies on your 239th live poll! As of 14-Nov-2018 9:51 PM Pacific your polls have 404,433 or more votes, for an average of 1,692 votes per poll.Worldwide Blockbusters That Lack Domestic Appeal7082nd Live Poll: https://www.imdb.com/poll/NXpVYq7qaE8/ Seen: http://www.imdb.com/seen/ls069799571/This is the 3,166th Title poll. Such polls have a total of 7,618,219 votes for an average of 2,406 votes per poll.Total Number of Votes 16,357,936 Projected Date of 20 Million Votes 20-Mar-2020 Days Until 20 Million Votes 490 This is the list of urbanemovies' polls as of 9-Nov-2018:Sorted Alphabetically http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2014/05/imdb-polls-alphabetical-by-author.html#urbanemoviesIn Decreasing Order of Votes http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2015/03/imdb-polls-descending-order-of-votes-by.html#urbanemoviesAlphabetical List of Polls http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2014/03/imdb-polls-alphabetical.htmlTop IMDb Polls http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2015/07/top-imdb-polls.htmlIMDb Polls - Descending Order of Votes http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2013/12/imdb-polls-descending-order-of-votes.htmlSummary Statistics http://mypollwatch.blogspot.com/2016/05/summary-statistics.htmlKey Threads - IMDb Poll FAQs Index https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/faq-key-threads-imdb-poll-faqs-indexHow to Improve the Chance of Having your Poll on the Home Page https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/faq-how-to-improve-the-chance-of-having-your-poll-on-the-hom...

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2 years ago

Recent Blockbuster Movies That Brought In 24.9% or Less Their Take Domestically, When Compared To The Total Worlwide Box Office