Multiplex Index: From Russia with Love

Welcome to the Multiplex Index, where we'll be providing clarity on the prevailing currency rates of the day...with the help of the global movie industry.

If you have an itch to watch America's number one movie -- The Hangover , about an all-too hilarious bachelor party in Vegas -- it may be worth your while to take a trip across the Atlantic as opposed to the Pacific. Convert your dollars to euros in Madrid or British pounds and you'll get a slightly better return on those ticket prices, at least compared to Friday.

After you're done watching Zack Galifianakis take a roundhouse from Mike Tyson, you might want to learn to say "thank you" in Russian. You'll want to give a hearty one to Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin for that marginally better ticket stub.

Over the weekend, it was reported that the Russian finance chief gave the greenback a big hug. Earlier in the month, Russian and Chinese officials questioned the dollar's strength of late. Both were pushing the idea of a new currency world order, or one where the dollar's place would be reduced thanks to an alternative chief currency reserve.

But during the Group of Eight summit over the weekend, Kudrin rebutted that notion, saying instead that it was premature to think about creating a reserve currency alternative to the dollar.

Investors liked the renewed confidence in the buck and sought refuge in it as the dollar gained on most of the big currencies throughout the day. Here's how it all broke down....

City Ticket Price Conversion Rate USD Ticket Price % Change Tokyo 1800 JPY 1 JPY= 0.0102 USD $18.360 0% Madrid 7.60 EUR 1 EUR= 1.3783 USD $10.475 -1.6% Singapore 10.00 SGD 1 SGD= 0.6845 USD $6.845 -0.8% London 10.50 GBP 1 GBP= 1.6265 USD $17.078 -1.1% * Above are typical going rates for movie tickets in different countries, converted from the euro in Spain, Japanese yen, British pound and Singapore dollar to U.S. dollars. Every 24 hours, we'll show daily percentage changes on currency rate movements, with our favorite (or least favorite, as the case may be) summer blockbusters as our guide. Percentage change is calculate from the previous day's ticket price.

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