North American moviegoers may not have been overly excited about Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille, but European cinema lovers are going ga-ga over the tale of a rat who wants to become a professional chef.
In its first weekend in German, Swiss and Austrian cinemas, the Brad Bird flick hauled in an unbeatable $19.7 million from 30 international markets. This made Ratatouille the #1 movie internationally, easily hammering I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which opened that same weekend, into second-place status. That live-action film only made a paltry $6.7 million over the equivalent time.
Bulk of Box Office From Germany
The bulk of Ratatouille's box office came from none other than Deutschland. The Pixar movie made $12.2 million, despite it being set in the capital city of Germany's traditional enemy (that would be France, in case I lost ya).
David Kornblum, vice-president of Disney's international sales and distribution claimed that Ratatouille was "like a vacuum cleaner in Germany," easily winning over the Germans the same way it had previously appealed to French moviegoers. The movie, which stars the voices of Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole and Ian Holm, made $59 million from France alone.
Ratatouille has currently earned something on the order of $247 million internationally, a lot more than the $203 million it pulled in the North American market during its theatrical run. That's also higher than the $217 million Pixar's previous picture, 2006's Cars, earned in non-North American markets.
The best part of this story (at least for Pixar and Disney) is the fact that Ratatouille has yet to open in the U.K. (it opens there on Friday, October 12th). The flick debuts in Italy on October 17th, and hits China, Sweden, Poland and Finland on October 19th.
Given that Disney and Pixar are currently battling over what Pixar viewed as a sub-par marketing effort by the Mouse House on Ratatouille, does this mean that Ratatouille has proven that it actually does have appeal to moviegoers? Or did Pixar produce a film that catered more to European palates than North American tastes?
Now that Pixar is taking over the marketing for their next movie, 2008's WALL-E, that burning question won't be truly answered for another year.
Ratatouille comes out on DVD on November 6th.
Fun Fact: The character of Remy's father (voiced by Brian Dennehy) is named Django. This is a tribute/reference to the legendary Gypsy-jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953). Reinhardt, one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, had lost the use of the third and fourth fingers on his left hand, due to being caught in a caravan fire when he was 18.
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