Alfonso Albacete and David Menkes' local comedy Sex, Party & Lies has taken the Spanish box office by storm with opening weekend figures of $2.4m (March 27-30).

It comes just a week after Pedro Almodovar's new film Broken Embraces took just $1.3m in its opening weekend (March 20-22).

Sony supported the launch with an extensive marketing campaign, including posters across Madrid and trailers on local TV channels. It helped the film reach the best figures for a Spanish film at the local box office so far in 2009.

Sex, Party & Lies (Mentiras Y Gordas) is produced by Tornasol Films and takes a no-holds-barred look at the exploits of a group of young boys and girls experimenting with drugs, clubs and sex, starring Alejo Sauras (Sexykiller), Hugo Silva (The Sandman) and Ana de Armas.

Spanish sales outfit Latido Films also managed to sell the film to G2 Pictures for release in the UK and to Only Hearts for the Japanese market at last week's Hong Kong Filmart.

Other Latido deals at Filmart include Jose Luis Lopez-Linares' festival favourite The Chicken, The Fish And The King Crab being sold to Media Factory for release in Japan and Gerardo Olivares' moving drama 14 Kilometers to Anjou Lafayette for Hungary. Both films have now sold to most territories.

'We are also close to signing deals for Juan Carlos Tabio's Horn Of Plenty to Italy, Salvador Garcia Ruiz' Paper Castles to Taiwan and Korea and Lopez-Linares' new documentary The Show Must Go On to Japan,' Massimo Saidel, head of Latido Films told ScreenDaily.