'2012' generates $225 million worldwide in opening weekend

After creating successfully grossing disaster films, the latest motion doomsday picture by Roland Emmrich, '2012', has made $225 million in box office returns worldwide.

There have been jokes around Hollywood and news outlets that filmmaker Roland Emmerich hates the world but producers and distributors will certainly dismiss that notion once they look at Emmerich’s box office track record. According to the Associated Press, doomsday film 2012 generated $65 million domestically and $225 million on a global scale. In foreign markets, ‘2012’ made $17.2 million in France, $15.3 million in Russia, $9.9 million in South Korea and $8.1 million in Spain. Citizens of Earth seem to enjoy their planet being destroyed as ‘2012’ came just over $3 million short of the opening weekend of Emmerich’s other apocalyptic film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ when it made $68.7 million. According to CNN, ‘2012’, which stars John Cusack (Say Anything & Must Love Dogs), Danny Glover (The Royal Tenenbaums & Saw) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Melinda, Melinda & Children of Men), made more than its $200 million budget. Rory Bruer, head of distribution of Sony, said, “Roland is that type of filmmaker that casts his net really wide. The story is something people could really relate to. It's a story of the survival of humanity.” As Rotten Tomatoes notes, ‘2012’ has a ‘Tomatometer’ of 39 per cent and an average rating of 5/10. The New Yorker film reviewer, Anthony Lane, was not in awe of the film nor does he speak very highly of the picture, “2012 is so long, and its special effects are at once so outrageous and so thunderously predictable, that by the time I lurched from the theater I felt that three years had actually passed and that the apocalypse was due any second.” The weekend’s box office: 1. "2012," $65 million. 2. "Disney's A Christmas Carol," $22.3 million. 3. "The Men Who Stare at Goats," $6.2 million. 4. "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire," $6.1 million. 5. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $5.1 million. 6. "The Fourth Kind," $4.7 million. 7. "Couples Retreat," $4.3 million. 8. "Paranormal Activity," $4.2 million. 9. "Law Abiding Citizen," $3.9 million. 10. "The Box," $3.2 million.