Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets stormed to the top of the charts in eight international markets with a stunning non-holiday weekend tally of $54m from 3,284 screens and 6.3m admissions. Results in the UK were particularly impressive. In a new series of industry records that beat the old mark set last year by Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, the picture took an estimated $29.2m, including four days of previews, from 1,275 screens. Chamber Of Secrets scored the highest single day gross on Saturday with $6.7m, breaking the milestone£4m barrier. It also set the record for the highest opening weekend without previews, just beating the old mark of $15.2m. This three-day total was higher than the opening three-day for Spider-Man by 66%, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (LOTR) by 35%, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace by 30% and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones by 8%. Chamber Of Secrets also managed the highest ever preview total, registering $13.7m compared to $10.6m set by Philosopher's Stone.

In Germany the picture grossed a classy $15.7m for the third highest industry opening of all time, behind the original and LOTR. Estimated admissions were 2.37m from 1,382 screens. In Austria it set a new industry opening record of $1.6m from 144 screens and registered 223,495 admissions. With previews the estimated total came to $1.82m. In the German-speaking region of Switzerland, Chamber Of Secrets recorded the highest industry opening with Euros 1.7m, some 42% better than the original.

Further afield the picture recorded the all time highest opening in Taiwan with $3.1m nationwide including previews, beating the previous incumbent The Mummy Returns by 16%. In the capital Taipei it scored the highest ever opening weekend with $1.4m (NT$48.3m) including previews and $1.2m (NT$39.7m) without from 90 screens. It was also the highest industry Saturday opening in Taipei with NT$20.7m, ditto for Sunday with NT$19m and the first picture ever to gross more than NT$100m nationwide in two days.

The Philippines also had its highest industry opening weekend of all time, excluding previews, with $1.2m from 188 screens and 794,200 admissions. That figure beat previous holders Godzilla by 5% and Spider-Man by 20%. Chamber Of Secrets also scored the highest Saturday gross, edging out Spider-Man's record set earlier this year. The opening beat the original by some 36%, Episode 2 by 67% and Episode I by 67% and Mission: Impossible II (M:I-2) by 102%.

There was also a highest industry opening day record in Singapore, where the family sequel took $1.03m from 54 screens with 220,332 admissions. It was the second highest opening weekend behind Lost World. However, the opening gross outdid the original by 18%, M:I-2 by 63%, LOTR by 43%, Episode I by 41% and Episode 2 by 6%.

Chamber Of Secrets even stormed the traditionally action-oriented citadel of Malaysia, scoring Warner Bros' biggest opening weekend in the territory and the highest industry opening for a family picture. It took $473,000 from 70 screens and just over 200,000 admissions. The weekend total exceeded the original by an impressive 86%, LOTR by 98% and M:I-2 by 20%.