Powered by a new industryrecord for an opening weekend in Italy, New Line's The Lord Of The Rings:The Return Of The King boosted itsworldwide cumulative total to $876.5m at the weekend to become the sixth biggestgrossing title of all time.

Peter Jackson's trilogyfinale added an estimated $28.7m from 7,187 screens in 57 territories for a$538.7m international running total, passing The Fellowship Of The Ring and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets in the all-time worldwide rankings.

It took $1.9m on its openingday (22) in Italy and went on to gross a four-day weekend total of $12.2m,averaging $16,694 from 730 screens.

Box office results were 36%bigger than the opening weekend of trilogy predecessor The Two Towers.

In Russia The Return OfThe King took $4.3m from 225 screensover four days, which represents 49% of the final total for The Two Towers.

The film has now out-grossedThe Two Towers in 42 of its 57territories including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, South Korea and Brazil.