The Newest Member of Hollywood's Billion-Dollar Club

The home video market may no longer be the golden-egg goose for the studios, but it looks like international biz is continuing to boom. Paramount recently became the fifth studio to make more than a billion dollars this year in foreign box office, joining Sony, Warner Bros., Disney and Fox in crossing that bench mark. It's the first time that five studios have hit that mark within a calendar year, Variety reports.

Warner Bros. leads the pack with about $1.2 billion as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is due to reach the $500 million milestone this weekend. Fox follows at $1.1 billion, with "The Simpsons Movie" now at $109 million; Disney is at $1.02 billion, led by "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" at $644.6 million; Sony's at $1.01 billion with over half that from "Spider-Man 3."

Universal is bringing up the rear with $404 million, a tally that should increase with the release of Bourne Ultimatum, and the expansion of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Knocked Up, and Evan Almighty.

All six major studios have grossed about $5.7 billion internationally, 21% ahead of last year at the same time.

Paramount joins billion-dollar club [Variety]