Far from crashing at sea, as expected by some American journalists, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen has had a smooth sailing in Europe, Japan and Mexico.
This week, its foreign gross reached $110 million, with another $25 million expected in the next four weeks.
In America, the film made a disappointing $65 million. It's opening came just around the time when Pirates Of The Caribbean, another sea adventure (and a far superior one), opened and went on to earn $650 million worldwide.
Still running in many countries, it could add another $50 million before ending its run.
The League, which cost between $80 and $120 million, is a sci-fi adventure that toplined Sean Connery and had Naseeruddin Shah as the mysterious Captain Nemo. Based very loosely on the Alan Moore graphic novel epic of the same name, it had famous literary characters such as Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, The Invisible Man, Mina Murray and Dr Jekyll coming
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The film was also hurt to some extent by the widely reported conflict between Connery, who had a producing role on the film and director Stephen Norrington. Connery had reportedly bad-mouthed Norrington but stopped when the film began to crumble in America.
It was torched by most major critics in America and abroad. Yet, abroad, the box-office reception was far more satisfying. If the movie's DVD and video sales are good, it may end up with a small profit.
When the film was conceived, there were fluid plans for a sequel. Among other things, the sequel was expected to reveal the complete identity of Nemo and how the Indian patriot had hated the British. But there has been no mention of the sequel after the film's opening.
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