'journey' adds ports, cruises to top

Warner Bros. put wind in the sails of "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" over the Feb. 10-12 sesh, and the sci-fi/adventure sequel responded with a chart-topping gross of $30 million from 30 territories. Expanding the pic to China and Russia in its fourth international voyage, to coincide with the film's Stateside release, Warners saw "Journey 2" rake in $57.3 million worldwide over the three days, bringing the pic's global cume to an outstanding $106.5 million. In China, the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" sequel came in at No. 1 with $13.5 million, making up nearly half of the film's total weekend gross. At the Russian B.O., "Journey 2" tallied $6.8 million -- more than 160% ahead of its predecessor's opening gross in Russia. Budgeted at a reported $79 million (not including marketing costs), "Journey 2" had solid holds in several markets including Mexico, where the sequel dropped just 27% for a weekend gross of $2.2 million -- better than the local opening of "The Woman in Black" -- and pushed its local cume to $6.9 million. In Brazil, "Journey 2" fell a scant 21%, grossing $1.5 million for a cume of $4.4 million; in the U.K., it grossed $1.4 million (down 25%) for a total of $3.7 million. Fox bowed the 3D re-release of "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" at 65 day-and-date territories, including Germany, the U.K. and France. The retrofit collected an international weekend gross of $20.5 million. Local power outages in Italy caused by severe winter weather dampened the country's overall box office, where "Star Wars" struggled to gross just north of $500,000, landing in seventh place. Local-language pic "Com'e bello far l'amore" topped the local frame with $3.3 million. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com