By the Numbers

Weekend box office

More than doubling its domestic take, overseas grosses for “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” have hit $514 million to date and the film is tracking just as strong as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” did a year ago, according to Warner Bros. And that’s with countries such as China, Venezuela and Egypt still to come.

“The biggest overseas market [for the film] is Japan, where we’ve done $113 million to date,” said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of distribution for Warner Bros. International. She noted that the last film, “Sorcerer’s Stone,” grossed $160 million in Japan.

The current film has grossed $80.6 million to date in the United Kingdom, $15.5 million in Mexico and $6.6 million in Brazil. In Russia, where the film opened Dec. 27, it had the second highest opening of all time with $4 million.

As for China, the first “Harry Potter” grossed $7.5 million. The sequel is scheduled to open Jan. 24 in key cities and then expand throughout the country.

The film has been playing well alongside New Line Cinema’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” which has grossed $292 million to date overseas.

Meanwhile, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” opened in limited release at four venues, grossing $2.9 million for a healthy per venue average of $21,800.

-- Robert W. Welkos

*--* MOVIE 3-DAY TOTAL VENUES AVERAGE WKS (STUDIO) GROSS (MILLIONS) PER OUT (MILLIONS) VENUE 1 The Lord of the $25.0 $261.0 3,622 $6,907 3 Rings: The Two Towers (New Line) 2 Catch Me If You Can $21.1 $97.4 3,170 $6,670 2 (DreamWorks) 3 Two Weeks Notice $11.1 $68.8 2,755 $4,039 3 (Warner Bros.) 4 Maid in Manhattan $8.6 $76.3 3,050 $2,827 4 (Sony) 5 About Schmidt (New $8.5 $12.0 816 $10,457 4 Line) 6 Gangs of New York $7.3 $47.1 2,305 $3,179 3 (Miramax) 7 The Wild $5.5 $31.5 2,881 $1,913 3 Thornberrys Movie (Paramount) 8 Drumline (Fox) $5.3 $47.5 1,653 $3,208 4 9 Chicago (Miramax) $5.0 $9.2 304 $16,332 2 10 Harry Potter and $4.7 $252.1 2,015 $2,309 8 the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.)

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Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.