On its opening weekend in Italy, King Kong paled in comparison to two local Christmas comedies,which stormed into the Italian box office, beating the giant ape into thirdplace.

Filmauro's Christmas inMiami grossed a huge $3,659,566from 447 screens on its opening weekend, registering a massive screen averageof $8,148 per screen. The film has been hyped up as the last ever in a 20-yearfranchise of 24 blockbuster slapstick comedies featuring Christian De Sica andMassimo Boldi, produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Lastyear's blockbuster, Christmas in Love,earned almost $21m.

Hit Tuscan comic Leonardo Pieraccioni broke into the box office atnumber two, with his latest comedy Ti AmoIn Tutte Le Lingue del Mondo, about a 16-year-old schoolgirl who falls inlove with her teacher. The film grossed $2,417,896 for Medusa from 452screens for an average of $5,337per screen. Pieraccioni's last film, Il Paradiso All'Improvviso grossed $29.5m in 2003.

Meanwhile, King Kongopened at number three, earning $2,333,635from 467 sites for UIP for a screen average of $4,986.

Christmas is traditionally the most lucrative period of the yearin Italy. This year, Christmas in Miami,Ti Amo in Tutte Le Lingue del Mondo and KingKong have taken over a massive 1800 screens across the nation -representing over half of Italy's 3000 screens.

Lastweekend also saw the release of Eagle Pictures's Memoirs Of A Geisha, which opened on 156 screens and grossed$478,032. Upcoming festive releases include Buena Vista's The Chronicles of Narnia, which is out this Friday on 600 screens.