With official first day figures in and second day figures starting to be reported The Matrix Revolutions looks set to follow previous instalment Reloaded with international earnings out performing domestic revenues.

Indeed, a $24.3m first day gross in North America, where it launched at 06:00 in Los Angeles and 09:00 in New York, indicates that the day-and-date global launch strategy has paid off for the distributor.

Warner Bros has reported a $43.1m first day take worldwide on Wednesday (Nov 5), which, adding second day figures for the UK, Germany, Spain and Hong Kong along with New Zealand ($193,000) and Australia ($1.76m) - where it opened in the early hours of Thursday morning - currently stands at $48.6m.

While the revolutionary day-and-date minute-by-minute launch of the film in 107 countries around the world was instigated to combat piracy, the 'event' stature of the release may also have helped had the film disappointed in the US on a launch prior to its international roll-out.

Internationally, where the film lacked the ability to play a full day due to the day-and-date, minute-by-minute launch strategy, the final part of the Wachowski Brothers' trilogy looks strong from the first day's figures. Considering the importance of the international marketplace to the franchise, which saw both the 1999 original The Matrix and this summer's first sequel The Matrix Reloaded earn 62% of their worldwide grosses internationally, this will be a relief for Warner Bros in view of the domestic result.

An $18.8m launch day goes little way to reflecting some of the individual results. In Japan, where a 23:00 hours opening meant most theatres saw just one screening (although a few screened two) the sci-fi action title grossed $1.45m (¥161m) from 493 screens.

However, it remains to be seen if this performance can be sustained. In the UK and Ireland Revolutions performed well ahead of Reloaded, which opened in May also on a Wednesday. Revolutions saw a $3.1m (£1.8m) tally from 467 sites (925 prints) compared to Reloaded's $2.3m (£1.37m) gross from 461 sites (919 prints).

This was not sustained on Thursday however, when an estimated $1.97m (£1.2m) gross saw a 37% drop off from the launch day - despite having a full day of screenings compared to Wednesday's post 14:00 screenings. Thursday also was free of other major events like UK celebrations of Guy Fawkes night on Wednesday. This shows the third instalment already tracking 8% behind Reloaded comparing their Wednesday-Thursday launches.

Similarly in Germany and Spain, where the film launched at 15:00 on Wednesday, there were significant second day drop offs despite the extra number of screenings. Estimated figures for Germany's second day show it 34% down from the first, while more alarmingly early Spanish figures indicate a 55% drop off.

The same was seen in Nordic territories where the film is distributed by Sandrew Metronome Distribution. In Norway the second day brought admissions of 14,800 and a gross of $156,765 (NKR 1.1m) from 97 prints (playing 101 screens) - a 54% drop from the opening day's 32,976 admissions and $342,688 (NKR 2.4m).

Finland recorded second day admissions of 10,432 and a gross of $93,880 (Euros 80,737), a 40% fall from the launch day. Sweden's second day take of $253,899 (SKR 1.98m) showed a 51% slip from the opening day.

The Netherlands saw the only first-day record where Revolutions achieved the biggest opening day in Dutch cinema history. With nearly 45,000 admissions taken from 142 prints the final part of the trilogy edged out the launch day admissions of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and Spider-Man for the record. Box office supplied by the NFC showed Revolutions took $348,344 (Euros 299,576) in the territory.

Territories update:

Two days:
Finland $250,290 / 27,674 admissions
Germany $2.6m
Hong Kong $292,123
Norway $499,453 / 47,596 admissions
Spain $1.55m
Sweden $774,899
UK/Ireland $5.1m

One day:
Australia $1.76m
Belgium $205,483
Brazil $486,450 / 388,000 admissions
France $2m
Hungary $100,260 / 26,855 admissions
Italy $944,000
Japan $1.45m
Mexico $895,845 / 425,014 admissions
Netherlands $348,344
New Zealand $193,000
North America $24.3m
Russia $560,000
Serbia and Montenegro $39,725 / 18,094 admissions
Switzerland $280,899 / 26,000 admissions