"Up" rises again overseas

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Buoyed by a substantial first-place U.K. debut, the Pixar cartoon "Up" reclaimed the No. 1 spot on the foreign box office during the weekend.

The film generated $21 million overall from 25 markets, pushing its overseas gross total to $257.1 million.

The U.K. gross for "Up" ($9.7 million) accounted for nearly half the film's total tally, and beat the comparable market opening grosses of Pixar predecessors "Wall-E" (by 39%) and "Ratatouille" (by 41%).

"Up," the fifth-biggest movie overseas this year, also opened at No. 1 in Belgium and the Netherlands (a combined $2.3 million) and maintained its No. 1 spot for the second round in Denmark. Openings in Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden and Poland are on tap this week.

Second on the weekend was last weekend's champ "Inglourious Basterds," which collected $8.5 million from 50 territories. The film's offshore total stands at $154.7 million. Quentin Tarantino's Nazi revenge fantasy opened at No. 1 in Mexico and Brazil, and maintained its first-place position in Italy. The top territory so far is France with $23.4 million.

"The Ugly Truth" finished third on the weekend with $7.9 million, followed by "G-Force" with $7.8 million.

Fifth was "Agora," director Alejandro Amenabar's $70-million historical drama set in Roman Egypt, which reigned in Spain with $7.3 million. 20th Century Fox said the English-language film epic is "the biggest local title opening in the last two years." "Agora" co-stars Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella.

School holidays in two foreign markets were kind to the weekend's No. 1 title in the U.S. and Canada. "Couples Retreat," starring Vince Vaughn, opened at No. 1 in Australia ($2.8 million) and at No. 3 in New Zealand ($234,000).

"Zombieland" opened at No. 2 in the U.K. ($1.9 million), garnering $4.6 million overall from six territories.

(Editing by DGoodman at Reuters)