Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros), the second title by fledgling film company Estudio Mexico Films (EMF), has triumphed against the odds at Mexico's box office. Despite its length (two and half hours) and the fact that it was pitted against Mission: Impossible 2, the Cannes 2000 Critic's Week awardee earned $5.7m (pesos55.9m) and lured 2,172,267 admissions after four weeks on release from 225 screens.

'We broke even once we went past 1.8 million admissions,' said Richard Ham, marketing director for EMF's distribution arm, NuVision. Considering that most Mexican titles pull in an average of 300,000 to 500,000 admissions, Love's A Bitch has earned a perch among the winning local titles this past year. In its first week on release across 215 screens in the Republic, Love's A Bitch made 16.5m pesos and attracted 664,490 admissions.

NuVision has forecasted Love's final cume at around $9m, beating EMF's first title Gimme Power (Todo El Poder) which ranks second among the top ten titles this year having made $6.6m (63m pesos) in 12 weeks. Another hit, The Second Night (La Segunda Noche), ended with a cume of $5.2m (pesos50m) after 15 weeks. Sex, Shame And Tears (Sexo, Pudor Y Lagrimas) remains the all-time Mexican box office hit with its gross of $12.4m (118m pesos) last year.