UK production The Hole is turning heads at the Italian box office where it continues to perform well despite strong competition from Hollywood fare including Jurassic Park III, Heartbreakers and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

After opening on August 31 for a debut weekend gross of $440,000 (L 944.7m), the thriller, which stars American Beauty's Thora Birch and British upcoming talent Keira Knightley, went on to show legs in its second weekend recording a further $374,950 and bringing its total gross to $1.2m.

The film, distributed in Italy by Nexo Spa, dropped just 15% in its second weekend, the least of any title in the top 15, and this despite playing ten less screens than on its first weekend. In comparison the latest Jurassic Park sequel fell 50% this weekend, after claiming the top spot on its opening against The Hole last week, while adding four screens to its circuit. Directed by Nick Hamm, Hole had taken $1.4m in Italy by Wednesday this week, 13 days after release. The film has been sold to all international territories and is due to open next in Germany on September 20 and Austria on September 21 for distributor Tobis StudioCanal and Poland, also on September 21, for SPI International.

Meanwhile Shrek continues to build on its international tally, which currently stands at more than $155m, opening in top spots in Sweden ($390,368) and Denmark ($386,102 from just 65 screens). The computer-animated blockbuster also opened in Finland where it took $174,980 but was unable to unseat current audience favourite Bridget Jones's Diary.

Shrek is still playing well in most international territories including the UK ($40.6m to date), Australia ($16.3m), Germany ($16m) and Mexico ($14.2m). France has recorded over 3.5m admissions for the DreamWorks production.

Star of the week, however, had to be media darling Nicole Kidman. UK audiences enjoyed her in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge, which stole the limelight from fellow opener Scary Movie 2, while in Spain, The Others was rewarded by audiences by becoming the biggest grossing local opener of all-time.

The local record breaker followed a week after the territory experienced it's biggest box office opening of all time with Planet Of The Apes. Tim Burton's film has grossed $144m at the international box office so far.