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Only one title in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has failed to earn at least $300 million domestically. Yes, that title is On Stranger Tides. The other three titles averaged $346 million with the “worst” of them finishing with $305.4 million. On Stranger Tides exited North American theaters with a comparatively paltry $241.1 million. How did it get to a billion dollars? The answer is obviously through overseas revenue.

The first three titles were all wildly popular overseas, averaging $550 million in overseas box office. On Stranger Tides surpassed the previously most lucrative international title, At World’s End, by over $150 million. Its $800 million worth of overseas revenue is well beyond what The Curse of the Black Pearl earned globally.

Consider that the domestic/international split between the first three titles was almost exactly 50/50. Only 23% (!) of the revenue for On Stranger Tides was earned in North America. It accounted for less than half of the overall box office split of its predecessors. As such, On Stranger Tides was a disappointing performer in the perception of the average North American consumer yet it has become a box office triumph once we examine its overseas appeal. This is the fundamental change in box office behavior among all the major blockbusters this year.

The final Harry Potter film demonstrates this behavior as well. As mentioned earlier, the title accumulated $1.33 billion worth of global box office yet its domestic take was $381 million. This means it has earned roughly $950 million overseas. Placing this performance in perspective, only eleven titles in movie history have earned this much globally. In point of fact, Harry Potter 8’s international revenue has surpassed the total revenue of all previous Potter titles.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon earned $763 million or 68% of its total revenue abroad. This is in stark contrast to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That title attained only 52% of its grosses overseas while the first Transformers release was at 55%. In terms of actual dollars, the Transformers franchise has expanded as follows. After the original acquired $389.8 million, the sequel increased only somewhat to $434.2 million. With Dark of the Moon, international revenue has spiked to $763 million, only $61 million less than the combined total of its predecessors.

The Harry Potter franchise is not as shocking in terms of percentage increase from title to title, but its actual dollars gain is even more impressive. Harry Potter 8 has earned over $400 million more overseas than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This is a testament to the steady growth of international box office.

In a time of unprecedented year over year decline in domestic box office, Hollywood’s finest content creators are not in the expected state of panic and the reason why is simple. Over the past decade, they have cultivated an exponentially larger audience than the one that has been the industry’s bread and butter for nearly a century. We live in a global economy now and Hollywood has changed or at the very least evolved their focus to include billions more people. 2011 signifies the year where the tipping point toward overseas box office revenue has been reached.

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