Box office: ‘The Tourist’ and ‘Dawn Treader’ are welcomed abroad

Two films that fared disappointingly at the domestic box office are finding success overseas.

“The Tourist,” starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, and the 3-D “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the third film based on a popular series of children’s novels, both passed major box-office milestones overseas this weekend. “The Tourist” surpassed $200 million, while “Dawn Treader” exceeded $300 million.

The movies both opened domestically on the same weekend in early December. But “The Tourist” has grossed only a weak $67.6 million, causing some in the industry to question the star power of the film’s lead actors stateside. Fortunately for financier GK Films and distributor Sony Pictures, however, it appears the A-list movie stars haven’t lost as much appeal abroad.

This weekend, “The Tourist” added $1.8 million to its $201.9-million total, according to a studio estimate.

The film, financed for about $100 million by producer Graham King’s GK Films, hit the $100 million overseas in early January. It has performed best in China, where it opened in mid-February and has since grossed an estimated $20.8 million The movie has also done well in Russia and in Italy, where much of the European-set movie’s plot takes place. The film will continue to play abroad for a few more weeks, but it has already opened in all its major foreign countries.

The third “Narnia” film, meanwhile, was also expensive to make: It cost 20th Century Fox and co-financier Walden Media $155 million to produce.

But the movie has grossed only $107.3 million in the U.S. and Canada. That’s less than the last two “Narnia” movies, 2005’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and 2008’s “Prince Caspian,” which collected $291.7 million and $141.6 million domestically, respectively.

“Dawn Treader” has performed well in France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Japan, where despite tragedy the film grossed $1.4 million this weekend.

—Amy Kaufman