Early on, there was a debate within Paramount and Marvel as to whether having Captain America in the title would be off-putting to international distributors, and so the studio offered an alternative title, The First Avenger.

Cripps turned out to be correct in his hunch that the Captain America character has such strong brand recognition — the comic books have been published in at least 75 countries — that foreign distributors would happily choose Captain America: The First Avenger.

Only three countries opted for The First Avenger — Russia, Ukraine and South Korea. Everywhere else, it’s being released as Captain America: The First Avenger. …

Defying perception, Paramount and Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The First Avenger has now earned more overseas than in North America

To date, the superhero tentpole has grossed $178 million internationally, compared to $173.5 million at the domestic box office. The overseas tally includes a strong $5 million opening in China over the Sept. 9-11 weekend.

It’s hardly uncommon for a summer event pic — and especially a 3D title — to do bigger business internationally, but many assumed Captain America wouldn’t play as well among foreign audiences because of its title.

Full story here.

Well, now we have another “again” to add to our growing list of “agains,” this time courtesy — of all film sites! — our regular left-wing antagonists over at Movie Line:

Before Captain America: First Avenger was released in July, much was made about how the title — and title character in his red, white and blue — would play in foreign markets. In fact, three countries (Russia, Ukraine and South Korea) even decided to release the film with the Marvel-approved shortened title The First Avenger. Following a successful showing stateside, good ol’ Cap made his worldwide debut in many big foreign markets over the weekend; as the numbers trickle in, it looks he’s got some pretty enthusiastic allies. …

Overall, Captain America: The First Avenger has earned a reported $65,863,605 internationally thru Aug. 2 (Paramount has CA at $53.9 million thru Aug. 1), with tallies from openings in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Greece, Egypt and Austria yet to come. As for Russia, Ukraine and South Korea: Captain America The First Avenger has yet to debut in those countries, but Movieline will update its progress there when numbers become available. UPDATE: Per Paramount, Captain America actually did premiere in Russia and South Korea, where it grossed $4.2 million and $2.5 million, respectively. Score one for the non-American title!

Below, the top 10 foreign markets for Captain America:

Words I never thought I’d write: Please visit Movie Line for more.

A new three-year study of the Top 25 movies released in 2006-2008 earning the most money overseas shows that international moviegoers prefer clean movies with strong or very strong Christian, moral and/or redemptive content and values.

This study is significant because it matches our annual study of the Top 25 Movies at the Box Office in America and Canada and the top home video sales annually, and because Hollywood now makes more money overseas than it does in the United States.

The Movieguide® study found that 20 of the Top 25 movies overseas in 2006-2008, or 80%, contained strong or very strong Christian, moral, redemptive, and even biblical content, earning $8.39 billion out of $10.59 billion total, or 79.2% of the money among the Top 25.

That’s an average of $419.5 million per movie!

A couple of the best examples are “Spider-Man 3″ and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” both of which actually made it into the Top 10 movies overseas in 2006-2008.

“Spider-Man 3″ has a very strong Christian worldview with very strong redemptive themes, where the hero goes in repentance to the foot of the Cross to shed his sins. The new “Indiana Jones” movie shows the hero rejecting the evil tyranny and mind control of Communism and ends with a brief church wedding scene that quotes the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 19 and Verse 24 of Chapter Two of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament!

None of the Top 25 movies overseas in 2006 to 2008 were R-rated, but nine of them were rated G or PG. Also, only three of the Top 25 had more than 25 obscenities and profanities, only three had any depicted sexual content, only two had any sexual nudity in them, only four had any very strong action violence, only five (20%) had any drug references, and only 10, or 40%, had any scenes of drunkenness or alcohol abuse.

Moviegoers clearly prefer clean movies with strong Christian, moral, biblical, and redemptive content. They want good to triumph over evil and justice to prevail. They want to be inspired.

The following chart lists the kind and percent of moral, theological and political content Movieguide® found in these Top 25 Movies:

Top 25 Movies at the Overseas Box Office, 2006-2008 

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Besides “Spider-Man 3″ and the “Indiana Jones” movie, the study also included such top movie releases in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as “The Dark Knight,” “I Am Legend” (which had a several Christian worldview), “Wall-E” (which had a very strong redemptive Christian worldview focusing on a heroic example of the Christian definition of love), “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” “Prince Caspian” (based on a Christian novel), “Iron Man,” “Transformers,” and the last two “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies (both of which contained overt Christian references at the center of an ultimately redemptive plot).

A Movieguide® study of the Top 25 movies overseas in 2005, 2006 and 2007 showed very similar results to the new three-year study.