The Incredibles currently seems unstoppable at the top of theinternational chart with its latest weekend gross nearly double that of thesecond placed title. Last weekend saw a number one debut in Germany gross $5.7m(Euro 4.3m) from 751,000 admissions adding to holdover territories and takingthe animated film passed $150m internationally.

In German-speakingSwitzerland the film also led with a $680,643 (SFR 790,160) opening weekend.Added to the rest of the territory where the film was already open it movedback to first place in nationwide table with $959,600 (SFR 1.1m).

Warner Bros' The PolarExpress is nearing $50m internationally having expanded wide in the UK atthe weekend and launched in multiple smaller European territories including TheNetherlands, Belgium, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Also amongst them wasNorway where 30,000 people bought tickets for a $300,000 (NKR 1.9m) weekendgross that placed the film in first place with nearly double the admissions ofthe second placed film.

Buena Vista International's NationalTreasure usurped stablemate The Incredibles at the top of theItalian table upon its wide release. The film repeated this achievement inSpain where it played its second weekend but slipped just 34% week-on-week andmoved up from second place to first.

A wave of new releases wasled by Blade: Trinity with four territory launches including the UK andFrance. The previous titles in the trilogy did not perform as wellinternationally as in North America. The original Blade grossed $61.1mfrom international territories, 46.6% of worldwide gross. The first sequel took$72.7m for a similar international/North American split with internationalaccounting for 46.9%.

Behind it in seventh placewas The Phantom Of The Opera which saw launches in South Korea and theUK take a weekend cumulative gross of $5.7m. The last film to be adapted froman Andrew Lloyd Webber was Evita in 1996. That film performed strongerinternationally than in North America grossing $91m from international markets,representing 64.5% of worldwide grosses.

French comedy The Daltons(Les Dalton) launched in France and French-speaking Switzerland for a $4.6mweekend that saw it finish ahead of Ocean's Twelve's first internationalweekend.

Opening day-and-date withNorth America in five territories Ocean's Twelve's weekend was led by anumber one in Australia where it grossed $3.4m (A$4.6m). In Malaysia, whichalso received it at the weekend, the sequel can't fail to outgross itspredecessor as Ocean's Eleven was banned in the country as thecensorship board of the time objected to the idea of robbers getting away atthe end of the film (see trendspotting in this week's [Dec 17] ScreenInternational).

Media Asia launched FengXiaogang's A World Without Thieves in four Asian territories includingChina and Hong Kong at the weekend, which finished just outside the top ten atthe international box office. The film stars Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs,House Of Flying Daggers) and Taiwanese star Rene Liu.

Mike Nichols' latest title, Closer,gained its first international openings with a $1.5m in third place in Italy.