Barely one week into release, Sony's Spider-Man 2 has already spun such a solid international platformthat a raft of second wave releases in several major markets and strongholdovers elsewhere could take it past $100m this weekend.

The comic book sequel has amassed $60.5m to date and was dueto open in Germany through Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International ona massive 1,137 prints yesterday ( July 8), followed by Japan on 710 on July10.

Strong openings seem assured, given that the original dominatedboth markets when it opened insummer 2002, grossing $11.1m in 950 theatres in Germany and $9.6m in 501 in Japan.

Elsewhere, Spider-Man 2opened in Sweden on 118 prints on Jul 7 and was set to roll out in Austria on140 on Jul 8, Switzerland on 130 the same day, and South Africa on 102 on Jul9.

Overall there is little else by way of major releases thisweekend as the distributors try to avoid the spider's web.

Warner Bros will expect strong holdover business for itsfamily sequel Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban ($369.4m as of Jul 4) and the action epic Troy($337.6 as of Jul 4).

And the Dreamworks comedy Shrek 2 continues to rack up the grosses through UIP as thenumber one international picture on $175.9m as of Jul 4.

Paramount drama The Stepford Wives was due to open through UIP in France and Belgium onJuly 7 and Italy and Mexico on Jul 9, while comedy The FightingTemptations was ready to roll out inGermany on Jul 8.

Elsewhere, the distributor's thriller Twisted opens in the UK on Jul 9 and the comedy MeanGirls opens in Brazil on Jul 8 and Taiwan aday later. Spyglass/Universal's Connie and Carla opens in Spain on Jul 9.

Fox International opened the action thriller Walking Tall in France on Jul 7 and is preparing to release inthe UK on Jul 9. The Day After Tomorrow's latest international running total is $326.8m and worldwide thepicture has grossed $506m.

Buena Vista International (BVI) is gearing up for its firstwave of King Arthur launches next week.Latest cumulative totals for Miramax's Kill Bill Vol 2 and Starsky And Hutch, both of which are distributed internationallythrough BVI, are $79.5m and $72.5m respectively.