Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia's action comedy Kung FuHustle embarked upon a blistering record-breaking trail at the weekend as it amassed an estimated $15.1m on 730 screens in fivemarkets through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI).

Stephen Chow's comicalgangster tale opened to a massive $7.8m on a record 492 screens in China in thebiggest opening of all time. The Y64.3mlocal currency haul overtook House Of Flying Daggers' previous mark ofY63.9m.

The result is a notable success for Sony's local production unitand SPRI. By way of comparison, the biggest opening for a Hollywood picture inChina so far has been Sony's Spider-Man 2 on Y15.9m.

Two other all-time debuts took place in Hong Kong and Taiwan. InHong Kong, Kung Fu Hustle took $3.2m on 95 as the HK$24.7m localcurrency equivalent beat the old HK$14.3m mark set by Jurassic Park: LostWorld.

Taiwan produced $1.9m on 45 in Taipei only (the screen count forTaiwan was 121) as the NT$62.8m local gross surpassed the previous best of NT$60.7mset by Spider-Man 2.

Thepicture took the second biggest opening ever in Singapore on $1.3m on 46 behindSpider-Man 2, and scored the third biggest ever debut in Malaysia on$950,000 on 52 screens, trailing the first two Spider-Man releases.