No question that 12
Years a Slave, because of its subject matter, was never going to be a Hunger Games blockbuster, but it has
done well here the U.S. 

The question though has always been, how would it
play overseas?

Well it seems that the answer to that question is: very well.

The film opened last week in the UK, and grossed $4.1 million on just 207 screens, with a screen average of just over $20,000, with
reports of sold out shows, making it currently
No.1 on the UK box office.

Compare that to Django
Unchained, which opened a year ago in the U.K. and made $.6.1
million its opening weekend. Pretty good, but when you consider that Django first
opened on 445 screens – twice the number
of of theaters currently showing 12 Years – and that Django has major box office
stars in it, such as Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, that makes 12 Years’ weekend opening even more impressive.

Django went on the make $30 million in the U.K. alone, and
12 Years could, at this point, easily equal that number.

And in another 8 countries where 12 Years has opened, it’s already doing excellent business; In Spain, $3.7 million to date, Sweden, $826,000, Russia, $736,727 and Greece, $544,000, making the worldwide
total for the film, $51.6 million so
far, with many more foreign territories to come.

At this rate, the film is sure to hit, or even surpass $100,000,000 worldwide.