20th Century Fox's Planet Of The Apes re-imagining, under the direction of Tim Burton, opened day and date in Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand to massive box office figures.

Even while it was smashing numerous records over the three-day weekend (Friday 27 July-Sunday 29) in North America, Apes was showing muscular strength in the Asian markets as well. Swinging into Japan on Saturday the sci-fi tale managed an estimated $5.5m from 326 screens, a tremendous average of $16,871 per screen. Although the Fox picture, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter, was unable to take the top chart spot from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, the opening was still a strong start to the company's international roll-out in one of the most significant international territories.

The film also bowed in Hong Kong and Thailand where it took approximately $600,000 in each territory. This showed a roaring $24,000 screen average from Hong Kong's 25 screens and $4,800 from the 123 in Thailand. Apes also opened in Puerto Rico where it took an estimated $610,000 from just 50 screens.

The international release continues thick and fast over the next month, including Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and South Korea within the next seven days; Australia and Singapore on August 9; UK Aug 17; France and Switzerland Aug 22; The Netherlands on Aug 23 and South Africa on Aug 24.