Sigh. It never ceases to amaze me how the naysayers will try to find ANY number/argument to bash this movie.
Wrong. Some people just like to analyse box office numbers. It's why sites like boxofficemojo exist. It interests some people, the detail, and discussing it. I consider myself to be one of them.
There's a difference between debate and bashing. Don't be so fucking hysterical.
To the topic: it does make one wonder why it didn't do so well internationally. It saw tremendous growth in the US compared to previous movies, but not internationally (Generations took $120m internationally and that was back in 1997). So the new movie did worse abroad than Generations.
I would say they that hype was a
big part of this new movie's success. The PR machine was at full force in the US, and it drove the numbers up. But abroad that level couldn't be sustained, so it didn't get as much attention. So it did pretty much 'business as usual'.
The next one will probably do similar.. it has an established base of new fans in the US now, but abroad won't have reached that critical mass. So they can either throw more advertising at it abroad, or let it continue to underperform. With advertising it's basicall a gambling game, with sketchy returns.