With a promising fourthquarter to come, the UK box office looks set to leave the rest of Europe in the shade and may even have an outside chance of beating 2004's numbers.

After a phenomenal run forWarner Bros' Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, theterritory is just 4% down on last year, according to latest figures fromleading statistics trackers Nielsen EDI.

At the close of September, UK revenues stood at $1.02bn (£577.2m), still $460m(£261.5m) shy of 2004's end-of-year result.

Beating last year is a tall order: 2002'sresult for the final quarter was $391.9m ($222.7m), while 2003 managed $431.4m(£245.1m).

But this year, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire is expected to take $70m (£40m) inthe UK to become the biggest earner of 2005.

Similarly King Kong lookssure to be a global hit for Peter Jackson and if it earn even just half the UK average Lord Of The Rings'result Kong should deliver $53m (£30m).

However, the real crownjewels could come from Wallace And Gromit:The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and The Chronicles Of Narnia:The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Both films are developed from Britishsource material and will be expected to see biggest international results comefrom the territory.

Narnia receives its world premiere in the UK as this year's Royal Film Performance at London's Royal Albert Hall on Dec 7.

See this week's ScreenInternational for more