I’ve heard very little about this, but Life of Pi is the most popular movie overseas right now. At this point it has made close to $100,000 domestically, but outside of North American it has amassed close to $400,000. That’s pretty remarkable. While it finished in fifth place domestically the weekend it opened back in November, which would have made it seem like a box office failure, internationally it is still number one, ranking ahead of The Hobbit in the most recent statistics. You wouldn’t realize it from the press it’s gotten here, but this movie is an absolute hit in the international market.
There’s a good reason for this. Life of Pi enjoys an international appeal for one thing because of its universally relatable story: a boy whose family is moving from India gets caught in a storm at sea and he’s stranded on the ocean with only animals to keep him company. It’s a meditation on religion in general, drawing from Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity most immediately, but functions a bit as a parable for religion as a whole, as a way of understanding the world no matter what the specific tenets one may ascribe to.
Director Ang Lee was very deliberate also in selecting a distinctly international cast—there are no American actors in any of the main roles in the film, but actors from across the globe. This movie had the opportunity to be an international hit, and it capitalized on this from a business perspective as well as artistically. It would be nice for the Academy to continue the trend from last year’s win by The Artist to truly represent film’s global reach.
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