‘Despicable Me’ leading the pack in foreign box office

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Animated comedy ‘Despicable Me’ continued a strong overseas run with No. 1 openings in France and Spain this weekend, where the 3-D movie took in $5.3 million and $3.1 million, respectively. It was also No. 1 for the second weekend in a row in Germany, dropping only 29% to $3.8 million and boosting its total there to $10.6 million.

Universal Pictures’ first computer-generated animated film has now taken in a total of $135.5 million overseas and has yet to debut in Britain and Japan, giving it a good shot at an international total that would come close to its impressive domestic box-office take of $247 million.

The Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz action comedy ‘Knight & Day’ had a solid opening in Japan, collecting $6 million but a softer start in Italy, with only $1.3 million. The 20th Century Fox movie is nearing the end of its international run and has so far grossed $161.6 million, far outpacing its disappointing $76.4 million in the U.S. and Canada.

‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’ had unimpressive openings of $2.8 million and $2 million in Britain and Spain, respectively. The Oliver Stone-directed drama has so far collected $37.1 million after opening in most major European markets. Domestically, the picture has failed to show much staying power after a decent start and is at $43.7 million after three weekends.

Sony Pictures’ ‘Eat Pray Love’ is failing to turn into a foreign phenomenon despite its overseas setting. The Julia Roberts drama opened to a strong $3.6 million this weekend in Australia but a soft $1.6 million in Russia. It is now playing in most major markets around the world and has collected a total of $64.1 million, making it unlikely the adaptation of the bestselling book will exceed the good, but not great, $79.1 million it ended up with domestically.

In better news for Sony, the Adam Sandler comedy ‘Grown Ups’ hit $102.3 million this weekend overseas, making it the highest-grossing international movie ever for the star.

-- Ben Fritz