Although it has performed respectably Columbia TriStar's Stuart Little 2 was not the runaway success that studio might have hoped given the success of its predecessor and Columbia's strong summer 2002 run to date with Spider-Man and Men In Black II.

After the North American launch lost out on the top spot to Sam Mendes' Road To Perdition taking $15.1m - just $96,929 ahead of 1999's December release of the original Stuart Little - similar disappointments were seen in the UK, the Netherlands and Argentina.

The day-and-date openings in these territories may have been part of the problem. In the UK, where the original Little scored $28m (£17.8m) when released in June 2000 - some six months after the US release - the launch came just a week after the strong reception for Warner Bros' Scooby-Doo. The canine-caper was relatively unharmed by Little's opening, dropping off just 23% from its opening three-day weekend.

The CGI-mouse had to settle for third place with $2.1m (£1.3m) from 473 sites. This was lower than the $2.7m (£1.7m) grossed by Stuart Little when it opened nationwide (after a three week Ireland/Scotland only release) in July 2000, claiming the top chart position.

Similarly in the Netherlands the film was unable to take the lead, this time losing out to Columbia stable-mate Spider-Man which is only in its third week in the territory. Once again the jam-packed children's market was relatively unaffected by Little's debut with BVI's Lilo & Stitch dropping off just 14% in its fourth weekend, Warner's Scooby-Doo down only 28% in its fifth weekend on release and UIP's Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron down only 27% from its previous, opening, weekend.

Stuart Little 2 managed $226,606 (Euro 223,434) from 112 screens in the territory. The original Little film grossed over $1.5m in the Netherlands and remained in the country's top 10 for 11 weeks after opening at number one in April 2000 in a chart with no other children's titles on offer.

In Argentina Stuart Little 2 suffered the same fate. Released just a week after 20th Century Fox's chart-leader Ice Age and two-weeks after BVI's Lilo & Stitch, Stuart Little 2 had to settle for fourth position in the chart with an opening of $92,873 (Pesos 338,976) on 75 screens. Once again this barely impacted its direct competition with Ice Age retaining pole position, falling just 14% from its opening weekend to score $210,125 from 117 screens, and Lilo & Stitch adding one extra screen this week to see a 64% rise in its week-on-week figures - BVI's film took $96,837 from 125.

The first Stuart Little film grossed $140m in the US and $157.6m from international markets in 1999 and 2000.

The sequel opens in Belgium and Argentina next weekend. It reunites Stuart Little's director Rob Minkoff with the original's cast including voice talent Michael J Fox and Nathan Lane alongside Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki.