Harry Potter And ThePrisoner Of Azkaban stormed into the Italian box office at number one,earning a massive $6,283,045 on its opening weekend for Warner Bros Italia. TheAlfonso Cuaron film, released during the normally quiet Italian summer seasonon a wide 637 prints, pulled the crowds in to gross a huge $9,863 per screen.

The latest HarryPotter extravaganza blew away competition from The Day After Tomorrow, which shed 45% off its earnings on itssecond weekend. Twentieth Century Fox's ice age drama scored an extra$2,030,273, bringing its total to $8,902,894.

Last weekend also saw the earnings of two other Hollywoodblockbusters take a dizzying fall: Warner Bros's Troy's grosses dropped 56% on its third weekend, while UIP's Van Helsing plummeted 64%.

Meanwhile, Istituto Luce's new Italian release, Fino A Farti Male, a drama about ahusband who discovers that his wife is having a lesbian tryst, opened on ninescreens but earned just $12,933 for a timid screen average of $1,437.