Actual international boxoffice figures for Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets have proved to be even better than the estimates,with an opening weekend total of $59.5m from 7.1m admissions on 4,265 screens.

' In the UK the picture set four newindustry records, beating the marks set by the original last year. ChamberOf Secrets established the biggestindustry weekend of all time (excluding previews) in the UK, taking $16.28mfrom 1,959,969 admissions on 1,275 screens in 524 sites - the widest release everin the territory. It is the first time a picture has ever passed£10m ina single weekend, beating Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by 7%. Adding the four-day preview total of $13.67m(£8.61m) into the equation yielded a biggest ever industry openingweekend figure of $29.96m (£18.87m), beating the original by 15%. Thepreview total was also a new industry record, beating Philosopher'sStone by 28% and Saturday proved tobe the biggest industry single day gross, registering $6.72m (£4.23m).This is the first time a picture has ever crossed£4m in a single day.

' In Germany thepicture scored the biggest industry single days of all time for Saturday andSunday, while overall it grossed $16.4m (Euros 16.18m) from 2,489,952admissions - the second biggest industry opening of all time (excludingpreviews) in Euros behind the original, which grossed Euros 16.66m. Warner Brossaid the opening was 3% behind the record set by Philosopher's Stone in local currency, however due to currencyfluctuations since last year it was 11% higher in US dollars than the boxoffice for the original and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of TheRing. Saturday takings were Euros5.53m, beating the original's Euros 5.46m. Sunday registered Euros 5.02mcompared to the original's Euros 5.01m box office.

'In Japan, ChamberOf Secrets scored the all-timebiggest preview figure for a single day, taking $3.77m (Yen 450m) from 777screens on Saturday night. The picture opens nationwide on Nov 23. There weremore records in Taiwan, where Harry and friends scored the industryisbiggest ever opening weekend of $1.43m (NT$49.36m) including previews from209,259 admissions from 44 prints in the capital Taipei and $3.23m (NT$111.05m)nationwide. This is the first time a picture has ever crossed NT$100m in itsopening weekend. It also recorded the biggest ever opening day (Saturday) andthe biggest ever Sunday. Figures were unavailable for these two records.Overall, Chamber Of Secrets was28% higher than the original in Taipei and 38% higher nationwide.

' In Austria it set anew industry opening weekend record excluding previews of $1.57m (Euros 1.64m)from 228,908 admissions from 144 screens. Including previews the total was$1.9m (Euros 1.88m). This was 19% higher than the original. In the German-speakingpart of Switzerland, Chamber Of Secrets grossed $1.26m (Sfr 1.82m) from 123,687 admissions from 97 prints. Itwas the biggest industry opening weekend, beating the original by 3%.

' The Philippinesyielded the biggest industry opening weekend excluding previews of $1.16m (Php61.72m) with 800,930 admissions from 55 prints. The territory also yielded thebiggest ever Saturday and was 36% bigger than the original. Actual figures forSaturday were not available from Warner Bros. More records tumbled inSingapore, where the picture scored the second biggest industry opening of alltime behind The Lost World,grossing $1.06m (S$1.89m) with 234,242 admissions from 54 prints. It was alsothe biggest opening day (Thursday), beating the original by 21%. Actual figuresfor Thursday were unavailable. In Malaysia the picture scored the biggest everopening for a family picture, opening 86% higher than the original. Despitegoing into a traditionally action-oriented market, Chamber Of Secrets grossed $475,285 (Rm 1.81m) with 215,876 admissionsfrom 45 prints. It was also the biggest Warner Bros opening ever in theterritory.