Another slow mid-summer weekend at the Italian box officesaw just two new releases: Mediafilm's House Of The Dead and IstitutoLuce's A Good Lawyer's Wife.

Dead opened on 99screens at number three but failed to topple

either The StepfordWives or Timeline. The picturegrossed $231,601, scoring a solid average of $2,339 per screen.

Istituto Luce released Korean film A Good Lawyer's Wife on just 9 screens. The film, about a boredwife who begins an affair with a teenage boy, earned $17,655 for a screen averageof $1,962.

It was also a good weekend for the only Italian filmcurrently in the top 20 at the local box office: After Midnight, which stars Giorgio Pasotti as the lonesome nightwatchman of Turin's national cinema museum, saw its earnings rise a huge 22%after 14 weeks on release. Directed by indie stalwart Davide Ferrario, thepicture has to date grossed $1,432,493 for Medusa.