Warner Bros. Pictures International Surpasses $1 Billion in Box Office for the Ninth Consecutive Year

Warner Bros. Pictures International has surpassed the $1 billion threshold in international box office revenue for the ninth consecutive year. The announcement was made today by Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President, Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures International.

The Division enjoyed a robust start to the year with the rollout of the Yes Man, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Clint Eastwood’s highly acclaimed drama Gran Torino. Among the Division’s subsequent successes are the summer breakout hit The Hangover, which will hit the $100 million mark on Monday, with Germany opening this weekend and Spain and Latin America left to release in August.

Warner Bros. Pictures International pushed past the $1 billion mark with the launch of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last week. The latest franchise entry now holds the record for the highest-grossing international opening industry-wide with $236 million, and in the first eight days of release became one of the fastest films to surpass the $300 million mark. The cumulative total through the second weekend is $405.3 million.

“With the fantastic slate of films so far, and the hard work of our international teams and partners, 2009 is turning into a spectacular year for us,” Kwan-Rubinek said.

The Division is currently gearing up for a fourth quarter that includes such highly anticipated films as Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, among many others.

Warner Bros Pictures International has been the market leader in five of the last eight years. The Division has surpassed $1 billion in grosses a total of twelve years, and was the first to hit the $2 billion mark twice, in 2004 and 2007, the latter of which, at $2.24 billion, continues to hold the record for the highest ever international gross for a single studio.