Pupendo, the new comedy from Czech director Jan Hrebejk is on course to challenge the country's local box-office crown.

Czech distributor Falcon and production house Total HelpArt T.H.A. are celebrating the success of Pupendo, the latest effort from Jan Hrebejk (Cosy Dens, Divided We Fall), which appears ready to top Jan Sverak's Dark Blue World as the most lucrative Czech film of all time.

As of April 16, Pupendo had registered 346,000 admissions for a $1.3m (CZK 37.7m) box office gross. "This has been generated after only three weeks," said Jan Bradac, head of Falcon.

The bittersweet comedy, set in the 1980s, when Czech society stagnated under the Communist regime, has struck a chord with local audiences. It stars the popular Czech comic actor Boleslav Polivka (pictured) (Cosy Dens, The Jester And The Queen) as a Prague artist whose work is ignored for political reasons.

Neil Friedman of Menemsha Films is handling worldwide sales and appears confident that Pupendo can follow in the footsteps of 2000's World War II drama Divided We Fall, the previous collaboration between director Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky.

Divided We Fall enjoyed international success - a rarity for a Czech film - selling in 39 countries. "With the tremendous success of Divided We Fall, certain countries are now buying Cozy Dens because they want more of these guys' films," said Friedman.

In its first week, Pupendo grossed $418,800 (CZK 12m), beating Dark Blue World's first-week box office take of $405,500 (CZK11.7m).

Given ticket price inflation since the previous local successes, Pupendo should manage to take the box-office crown, if not the record for admissions.

With nearly 1.2 million admissions and $3.1m (CZK 88.9m) at the box office, 2001's Dark Blue World is the most lucrative Czech movie of time - although in terms of admissions, Jan Sverak's 1996 Oscar-winner Kolya takes the top spot with 1.3 million admissions.