A quick check of TintinMovie.org’s traffic by country compared with the country’s population suggests that The UK is three times more interested in Tintin than the U.S. Canada is about two-thirds as interested in Tintin as the UK but Australia is marginally more interested than the UK.

India and Indonesia also seem very keen on Tintin, as does Brazil but Argentina is almost a Tintin free zone.

The coverage of Tintin around the world owes a lot to Europe’s colonial past as existing language and trade links made its spread easier. Though cultural issues undoubtedly played it’s part, such as in the US where Tintin lost out to flashier superheros.

The film is likely to change this and help Tintin spread into those parts of the world that have previously held out against him.

Tintin actually has quite a long history in the U.S.: the books were initially published there by The Golden Press from 1959, and soon after that Larry Harmon and his studios were instrumental in animating much of the Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin serial cartoons shown round the world from the sixties.
The magazine Children’s Digest also serialized the stories over the years too, and of course the Nelvana produced TV series has both been broadcast, and is also soon to be re-released on DVD, there.

So the ground work has been done…!