Captain America Makes More Money Overseas than in America

Posted by on September 15th, 2011   Filed under: Box Office, Industry News, International
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Contrary to popular belief, it appears that non-American audiences have no problem embracing a superhero named Captain America. This past weekend, Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger opened in China and grossed a solid $5 million, putting its international box office total at somewhere around $178 million. The foreign gross has now surpassed its domestic take, which is approximately $173 million and not likely to grow beyond that. While almost all of today’s blockbusters actually end up making the majority of their money overseas, many people thought that a hero named Captain America would be a tough sell in other parts of the world. They have been proven wrong. Chris Evans for president?

Due to marketing concerns, Paramount and Marvel reportedly offered foreign distributors the option to release the film as “The First Avenger” in their respective countries. However, the vast majority stuck with the full title due to the comic’s strong brand recognition. Only Russia, Ukraine and South Korea opted for the alternate title.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is another movie that was predicted to do poorly in other parts of the world, but it ended up bringing in an equal amounts domestically and internationally back in 2009. Perhaps foreign viewers are getting behind these films because their own countries simply do not offer the same level of spectacle on the big screen. One thing’s for sure: 3D is a lot more popular overseas, which means Hollywood studios are going to continue to try to cater to the international audiences where possible. Are you surprised that Captain America did so well with non-American viewers?



  • Ben

    Just shows that people who can’t get stupid PC bullshit out of their minds ARE as stupid as they sound

  • I think this is testament to the historical bent they took…for some reason watching a WWII Captain America is WAY different than C.A. in Iraq! Art Direction and Costumes count for something, but never on filmjunk ;)

  • Captain N

    It sucks when sucky movies make lots of money.

  • Gerry

    Speaking as a European, my only criteria for watching films is if I think they’ll be good and / or I think I’ll enjoy them.

    Captain America sucked big time despite my expectations.

  • I wonder if there is a difference in reviews between U.S. critics and international ones.

  • Kasper

    A bit surprising it did this well. I opted out of watching the movie due to word of mouth of it being very “American” in the way that it’s preachy about how America is the best place on earth, blablabla, the usual propaganda bullshit.

  • Anthony

    Don’t most movies make more money overseas than they do in North America? At least most of the blockbusters seem to, since they’re more countries to pool from outside of US and Canada.

  • Niklas

    I have wondered why domestic box office seems to dictate if a movie is a success or not financially even if it hasn’t even opened up overseas.

  • kyri

    @Sean
    Yes, there is. Mostly for the second act.

    but as Anthony has stated ALL films make more money overseas IF they get released. People don’t pay that much attention on reviews here.

    It’s weird though because Most blockbusters open simultaneously Worldwide to avoid bad reviews but C.A Opened slowly in Europe and then the Rest of the world, probably because they feared people wouldn’t go see a film Called CAPTAIN AMERICA?
    for some reason Americans feel that Everybody Hates them or smthng.

    we don’t hate you you dummies, we just think you are stupid, that’s all. and Racist.

  • It’s more amazing to me that a movie can make more domestically, ever, considering there’s 15-20x the amount of people outside North America. Granted, not all of them have the opportunity to see movies, but even the possible movie-going audience has to be degrees of magnitude above what exists here.

  • patrik

    the above..

    I find it strange that any movie would gross more in one country than the rest of the world combined..

  • patrik

    make that “two” countries..