Pedro Almodovar scored his best ever opening in Spain at theweekend when Bad Education (La Mala Educacion) grossed an estimated $1.6m and 245,000 admissions from 158prints in his home country.

The El Deseo production, which will open this year's Cannes Film Festival in May, was released through Warner BrosPictures International and at time of writing appears to have just been beatento first place by Buena Vista International's adventure title Hidalgo.

The romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give added $5m and 899,400 admissions from2,534 screens in 50 markets to raise its international cumulative total to$111.6m.

The weekend highlight was Brazil, where Something'sGotta Give dropped 19% in its secondweekend and added $448,000 from 122 to rank second behind The PassionOf The Christ. To date it has grossed $1.3min Brazil.

Also for Warner, The Last Samurai added $1.3m from 1,249 screens in 49markets for a staggering $339.3m international running total, while MysticRiver raised its totalto $63.2m including Village Roadshow markets.

The action thriller Torque added $2.5m with 517,500 admissions from 971 screens in 34markets for a $19.4m running total including Village Roadshow markets.

Torqueopened on $1m in Spain from 204 screens, which Warner Bros executives said wassome 354% higher than Driven, 178% better than Cradle To The Grave and an 84% improvement on Romeo MustDie.

Malabar Princess, which was produced by Epithete Films, climbed to second place inits third weekend in France behind Les Choristes and added $1.2m with 160,170 admissionsfrom 469 screens, raising its running total in the market to $7m.