# So how well did Captain America end up doing overseas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242 "2011-09-14T03:20:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/1 "2011-09-14T03:20:39Z")
Before the film, there were murmurs that due to an apparent America fatigue (fatigue is putting it mildly, I suppose) on the part of the rest of the world, and especially in places that don’t really like us, the movie was going to do badly overseas, or at least worse than the other recent Marvel films. Now that the movie’s been out for a while and probably exported already, how accurate were those rumors, anyone know? Compared to the other films like Thor, the Iron Mans (Iron Men?), and Hulk, did CA do relatively worse? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/2 "2011-09-14T03:48:01Z")
Box Office Mojo figures: Captain America: $173,520,394 Domestic - $175,000,000 Foreign Thor: $181,030,624 Domestic - $267,482,200 Foreign Iron Man 2: $312,433,331 Domestic - $311,500,000 Foreign X-Men First Class: $146,361,943 Domestic - $206,208,385 Foreign So it looks like they’re all in the same neighbourhood. And it’s probably still got some distance to go (it hasn’t opened in Japan yet). ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/3 "2011-09-14T03:53:46Z")
Yeah, looking through the records for other comic book movies, it’s looks like the they usually do about the same foreign and domestic, give or take 10 mil or so. Thor did pretty impressive worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/4 "2011-09-14T03:58:24Z")
And the movie wasn’t really very specifically American, either. Steve Rogers holds tightly to his ideals, and those ideals are ones which Americans like to associate themselves with, but they’re also ideals the rest of the world like to associate themselves with. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/5 "2011-09-14T07:36:07Z")
I saw it in Daegu, Korea. The theater was pretty packed and it stayed open for about five weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/6 "2011-09-14T08:17:54Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Thor did pretty impressive worldwide. For an mainstream American movie, _Thor_ had a very international cast. You had Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, and Tadanobu Asano. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/7 "2011-09-14T08:28:36Z")
Did Thor do well in Scandinavia? Truth is, somehow I never even wondered before if Scandinavians like the comic-book Thor, or if they hate it, or if they have no more special feelings about it than, say, an Italian would. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/8 "2011-09-14T08:52:22Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Did Thor do well in Scandinavia? Truth is, somehow I never even wondered before if Scandinavians like the comic-book Thor, or if they hate it, or if they have no more special feelings about it than, say, an Italian would. I don’t know how well it did, but it got some impressively bad reviews. Out of the five main newspaper in Stockholm it go only one good review: dn.se (left wing quality) 1/5 [http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/filmrecensioner/thor](http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/filmrecensioner/thor) aftonbladet (tabloid) 2/5 > **[Thor gör sig bäst bland de dödliga](https://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/film/a/yv8VMK/thor-gor-sig-bast-bland-de-dodliga)** > > ➕➕ > Thor svd.se (right wing quality) 4/6 > **[Riktigt roligt i Asgård](https://www.svd.se/a/50142162-8362-3793-bc29-7a6a7adcf17f/riktigt-roligt-i-asgard)** > > RECENSION. I nya stora Marvel-superhjälteeposet är det fullt ös i Asgård, där Oden (Anthony Hopkins, shakespeareskt myndig) och hans söner Tor (Chris Hemsworth, glad och hunkig) och Loke (Tom Hiddleston, slem och intrigant) hamnar i allvarlig kris.... expressen (tabloid) 2/5 [http://www.expressen.se/1.2416659](http://www.expressen.se/1.2416659) metro (free paper, Swedish brand but seen worldwide) 1/5 > **[Mode, skönhet, hälsa och inredning](https://metromode.se/)** > > På metromode.se hittar du de senaste nyheterna inom mode, inredning, träning och hälsa, skönhet, mode för män och Sveriges härligaste bloggar! For me the most amusing one was DN’s. DN at the best of times can be very snobbish when it comes to the arts, but with this one they were so up their own arse it wasn’t funny. In an amazing example of failing to get the point, despite the film being called “Thor” the reviewer insisted on using the Nordic name for the God, Tor, throughout the review. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/9 "2011-09-14T10:17:22Z")
Did Thor do better in the Scandinavian countries? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/10 "2011-09-14T11:05:02Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Did Thor do better in the Scandinavian countries? It did better than Captain America here in Norway. Thor sold 103 948 tickets, CA sold 71 822. This means that Thor is the 20th most seen movie so far this year, CA is at 28th. As a comparison: Harry Potter is number 1 at 561 909 (and is still in theaters). [Full list in Google-Translate Norwegian-\>English here](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.filmweb.no%2Ffilmtoppen%2F%3Fshow%3Dyear_100%26offset%3D1&act=url) I remember the reviews for Thor, mostly the same as **amanset** has from Sweden. “Quite bad, but a watchable movie if you can manage to forget everything you were told in school about the old god” An added bonus for the Norwegian audience was the characters who spoke “Norwegian” in CA. (In the church at the beginning). It was rather horrendous, and had to be subtitled. Also weird was the place called “Tonsberg” in both movies, with geography nothing like the town of Tønsberg. I was born there, and there are no mountains like those shown in Thor nearby. 🙂 FTR: I can’t say I wasted my money going to either of those movies, but I didn’t expect any deep meaning behind them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/11 "2011-09-14T14:34:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Box Office Mojo figures: > > Captain America: $173,520,394 Domestic - $175,000,000 Foreign > Thor: $181,030,624 Domestic - $267,482,200 Foreign > Iron Man 2: $312,433,331 Domestic - $311,500,000 Foreign > X-Men First Class: $146,361,943 Domestic - $206,208,385 Foreign > > So it looks like they’re all in the same neighbourhood. And it’s probably still got some distance to go (it hasn’t opened in Japan yet). To me, the interesting comparison is with Batman Begins – starting a franchise with a comic-book superhero who doesn’t really have any powers – where Captain America has already grossed more overseas, but isn’t doing nearly as well in the United States (and may well be on track to do better in an overall gross-to-budget analysis, by winning _ **so** _ big internationally as to more than negate BB’s advantage stateside). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/12 "2011-09-14T18:27:54Z")
Looking at the numbers broken down by countries, it appears to me that _Captain America_ did worse than the other superhero movies in Europe and much worse in India. But it did better in Latin America. You can’t really make the comparison yet for the Middle East and East Asia because it opened too recently. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/13 "2011-09-14T18:35:44Z")
[QUOTE=Tom P.] Also weird was the place called “Tonsberg” in both movies, with geography nothing like the town of Tønsberg. I was born there, and there are no mountains like those shown in Thor nearby. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Did that bother you, or were you just amused? In the movie “Independence Day”, the air base Will Smith’s character was supposed to be from was MCAS El Toro. El Toro is/was not out in the middle of the desert like you see in the film. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/14 "2011-09-14T18:57:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Looking at the numbers broken down by countries, it appears to me that _Captain America_ did worse than the other superhero movies in Europe and much worse in India. But it did better in Latin America. IIRC, negotiations over exactly how to split the gross broke down in India, and so it didn’t get shown in multiplexes. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/15 "2011-09-14T19:17:51Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Did that bother you, or were you just amused? > > In the movie “Independence Day”, the air base Will Smith’s character was supposed to be from was MCAS El Toro. > > El Toro is/was not out in the middle of the desert like you see in the film. Just amused. I don’t expect someone who lives over 8000km away to know (or really care) about the exact geography of old Norwegian towns 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/16 "2011-09-14T21:12:53Z")
I don’t remember any Norse towns showing up in Thor. Well, no modern Norse towns: There was an ancient village the Aesir were defending from the Jötun, but I don’t remember it being named. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/17 "2011-09-14T21:41:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t remember any Norse towns showing up in Thor. Well, no modern Norse towns: There was an ancient village the Aesir were defending from the Jötun, but I don’t remember it being named. That’s the one. There is a caption that reads “Tonsberg, Norway 965 A.D.”. The (disputed) date of the founding of the city is 871. This is, of course, another thing that binds the movies together; the small village defended by the Æsir in Thor is the same town where Red Skull finds the cube in Captain America 977 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/18 "2011-10-14T07:49:15Z")
Well, I finally did my part and went to see _Captain America_. I think it was less impressive than _Thor_ or _Iron Man_ or _X-Men_. The characters and the stories seemed more one-dimensional and there were several times when there was a stupid moment that took me out of the movie. (A good movie can have stupid moments but you don’t notice them at the time because the movie’s going well - if you notice the stupid moments, it’s a sign the movie’s weak.) I will say the CGI was amazing. Chris Evans was essentially a CGI effect for about the first third of the movie and it was seamless. (And again, the sign of great CGI work is that you don’t notice it when you’re watching it.) And to keep this post on topic, the current grosses for _Captain America_ are $175,908,703 Domestic and $186,778,439 Foreign. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-well-did-captain-america-end-up-doing-overseas/596242/19 "2011-10-14T08:38:59Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Before the film, there were murmurs that due to an apparent America fatigue (fatigue is putting it mildly, I suppose) on the part of the rest of the world, and especially in places that don’t really like us That’s actually a myth. I actually think they like us more than WE like us. Pew did a survey and found [this:](http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/06/17/obama-more-popular-abroad-than-at-home/) > [@](#): > > Ratings of America are overwhelmingly favorable in Western Europe. For example, 73% in France and 63% in Germany say they have a favorable view of the U.S. Moreover, ratings of America have improved sharply in Russia (57%), up 13 percentage points since 2009, in China (58%), up 11 points, and in Japan (66%), up 7 points. Opinions are also highly positive in other nations around the world including South Korea (79%), Poland (74%), and Brazil (62%). > > The U.S. continues to receive positive marks in India, where 66% express a favorable opinion, although this is down from last year when 76% held this view. America’s overall image has also slipped slightly in Indonesia, although 59% still give the U.S. a positive rating in the world’s largest predominantly Muslim nation. We still do very bad in the middle east, unfortunately, but that’s not going to affect a Hollywood movie much due to the region being a small market anyway.