Box Office Update: John Carter Posts $6.5m in Russia, largest opening in history; posts “Prince of Persia” numbers in midnight US shows

Amidst dire predictions for domestic Box Office, this morning Disney has at least one bit of heartening news.  The studio is reporting that John Carter had the largest opening day ever  in Russia, with a first day tally of $6.5M.  We’re not sure how the Russian cinema formulas work (will research it), but in the US an opening day of $6.5m would typically work out to $50-75m domestic gross.  That kind of number from Russia would be welcome — in essence getting 10% of the “sequel requirement” from Russia.

Disney is also reporting solid starts in in Hong Kong and Thailand, possibly portending a good run in China and other Asian countries.

No reports from Disney yet on European openings — but according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood “rival studios are warning me of soft starts in Europe.”

In North America, John Carter will be playing in a total of 3,749 locations Friday, including 2,614 3D runs. It’s also playing in 289 Imax theaters.  It opened to $500,000 in midnight screenings — about on a par with Prince of Persia, which had a $30m opening weekend.  However, Prince of Persia was a summer opener (not a school night) and so Box Office Mojo believes that JC is still on track for an opening that is substantially larger than Prince of Persia.