Stellar "Journey" continues abroad

It was clear sailing for the second-straight weekend for "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," which again navigated to the top of the overseas box office. Pic grossed a resilient $27.5 million over the Feb. 17-19 weekend, pushing its worldwide cume to $130 million. The Warner Bros.-New Line family film got an early overseas push, bowing in territories like Australia and South Korea four weeks ahead of the U.S. And later key markets, such as China and Russia, are contributing topnotch grosses. In China, the sequel grossed $9.5 million in its second outing, while in Russia, the pic tallied a soph-sesh take of $4.1 million -- a whopping 176% ahead of the original "Journey" in its similar local frame. In North America, "Journey 2" held best among the domestic top 10, down just an overall 27%. Pic showed even more stickiness in Canada, falling 3%, thanks to the country's nationally recognized family day Feb. 20. Toplining franchise newcomer Dwayne Johnson, and budgeted at a reported $79 million, the sequel already has more than recouped its production cost, grossing $183 million worldwide as of Feb. 19. Warners and New Line have committed to a "Journey 3," based on the sequel's success. Elsewhere on the family front, Disney's holiday holdover "The Muppets" proved resilient in the U.K., rising a remarkable 60% on Friday and Saturday in its second weekend over its opening two days (Feb. 10-11). The film's three-day second-weekend total of $5.8 million in Blighty rang in 36% ahead of its opening weekend. In just 10 days in the U.K., the Disney pic, with $17.4 million, has outpaced Sony's "The Smurfs" by 36% and Warners' "Yogi Bear" by 193%. Pic has hit $59.1 million internationally through Feb. 19, with a global cume of $147.3 million. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

'Vow,' 'Ghost Rider' top Friday B.O.

'Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance''The Vow'Yesterday marked a solid start to the weekend for Sony, which looks like it may claim both first and second place this frame.In first, last week's winner "The Vow" is still going strong with $7.4 million from Friday auds. Pic, which was co-financed by Spyglass Entertainment, earned a record-breaking $11.6 million on Valentine's Day in spite of competish from early sneaks of "This Means War." "Vow" has cumed $69.3 million in 10 days since opening.In second, newcomer "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," also from Sony, rode off with $7 million yesterday. However, films made from comic franchises tend to be front-loaded affairs, and B.O. observers suggest "Ghost Rider's" day-to-day drop off will remove it from second in such a tight horse race. It looks to make in the low- to mid-$20 million range through Sunday.Universal's "Safe House" earned $6.5 million yesterday for a Friday-to-Friday hold equal to "Vow's." The closeness of this week's race means "Safe House" could easily upset Sony's entries and gun it to first.Fox's "This Means War" took $5.6 million yesterday. With sneaks from Valentine's Day, the rom com has cumed $7.2 million so far. And "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" from Warner Bros. grossed $4.5 million, bringing its total to $37.6 million. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Film Commissioners announce Locations show

The Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl. will hold its Locations Show on June 15-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event will run concurrently with the opening weekend of the Los Angeles Film Festival, held June 14-24 at venues centered around the adjacent L.A. Live complex. ''Film Commissions are not just about locations,'' said AFCI Executive Director, Martin Cuff. ''Our annual trade show offers a unique chance to meet with these Film Commissions who collectively provide over $2.5 billion in annual funding. We're very excited about our move downtown, which will create a true international village at the Los Angeles Film Festival.'' The trade show was held last June at Disney Studios in conjunction with the Producers Guild of America's ''Produced By'' conference. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

'Mormon' tops box office

"The Book of Mormon" hit No. 1 on the Broadway top 10 last week -- and it's something of a miracle. Sure, Tony-sweeper "Mormon" ($1,455,329) has been a sold out hit since last spring, and sky-high demand for tickets has pushed the average price paid per ducat into the stratosphere. But the show's overall weekly tallies are limited by the size of its venue, the Eugene O'Neill Theater, which at less than 1,100 seats significantly hampers the gross potential when compared to, say, "Wicked," the long-running hit in a theater of 1,800 seats. But last week, "Mormon," undampened by a slow winter week that kept sales below par at many productions on the boards, improved on the prior frame, broke another house record and came out ahead of "Wicked" ($1,349,433), "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" ($1,268,002) and "The Lion King" ($1,226,681). In a mark of the continuing demand for "Mormon," average price paid per ticket hit a walloping $166. That's way ahead of the second-highest per-ticket average logged for the week, $109, reported at Lincoln Center Theater's hit play "War Horse" ($860,311). In one of the chilliest frames of Broadway's annual winter slump, only a very few productions last week saw B.O. rise over the prior sesh, and the handful to do so -- "Sister Act" ($482,863), "Seminar" ($380,701) and "Wit" ($244,728), in its first full week after opening -- upticked only slightly. Despite all that, "Porgy and Bess" ($905,134) seems to have established itself as a solid performer in the face of the Street's overall downward trend. It's an open question whether sales will further rise along with the tourist tide later this spring. Overall sales fell $2.4 million to around $15 million for 23 shows on the board. The B.O. declines aren't much of a surprise to legiters, who spend the year girding themselves for the tough times that hit the Main Stem after the holiday boom. Last year at this time, sales had slipped to around $12 million for 19 productions running. Attendance also was down last week, falling by about 25,000 to 179,706. Still, that's well ahead of the 145,000 theatergoers logged last year at this time, and last week's average capacity of 78% came out ahead of the 73% posted in 2011. Last year it was around this time that B.O. began to pick up around town. Whether the same will hold true over the coming week remains to be seen. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com