Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra continued its triumphant international run this week, opening in Italy for a three-day gross of $1.18m (Eu1.2m). Playing on 280 screens the film, which features Italian-born actress Monica Bellucci as Cleopatra, scored a good average of $4,221 for distributor BVI. However the film did have to settle for second position in the chart behind Men In Black II, which claimed $1.6m in its second weekend from 341 screens.

Mission Cleopatra, a sequel to 1999's Asterix & Obelix Vs Caesar which grossed $7.8m in Italy for Cecchi Gori, was the first European-produced film to pass $100m internationally in 2002 and now stands on $105.6m.

The lions share of this came from France where the film sold 14.5 million tickets to gross $75.3m for distributor Pathe Distribution, making it the second highest earner of all-time in the country, behind Titanic (which recorded 20.8 million admissions in 1998). The 1999 Asterix title attracted 8.8 million admissions in France, also for Pathe.

Other strong performances for Mission Cleopatra have come from Germany ($8.3m), Spain ($6.1m), Belgium ($4.5m), Switzerland ($4.05m), Norway ($876,453) and Denmark ($547,687). It is still running in Poland, where it has grossed $1.9m (zlo7.97m) and resides at seventh in the chart after 10 weeks on release for local distributor SPI; and Hungary, which has seen the comedy take $609,325 (huf150.7m) for UIP after five weeks.

Mission Cleopatra opens next in Scotland on Oct 11 and the rest of the UK on Oct 18, handled by Pathe. Miramax will open it in the US next year.