(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1, Michael "Bully" Herbig's sequel to his2002 blockbuster Manitou's Shoe,has posted the best ever opening in Germany with over 625,000 admissions in thefirst 24 hours of release.

The German produced film is asend up of the Star Trek series. Accordingto distributor Constantin Film, 164,000 cinema-goers had attended previewscreenings at 22.00 on Wednesday evening (July 21) in 700 cinemas, and another461,000 had gone to see the film in 900 cinemas on its first proper day ofrelease on Thursday. The house record was broken in many cinemas, withCologne's Cinedom, for example, selling a total of 4,156 tickets for the filmand Munich's Mathaser complex 4,089.

If the film keeps up the momentum of this first day - whichis likely given the blaze of publicity surrounding this release - (T)Raumschiff could become the first film to register more than 3madmissions in its opening four days. Until now, the record has been held by HarryPotter And The Philosopher's Stone whichattracted 2.59m cinema-goers on its first weekend in November 2001.

A record also fell in Austria when Herbig's comedy clockedup more than 61,000 admissions on its first day.