Warner Bros' The Dark Knight was the big story in Brazil thisyear, earning $13.7m (r32.7m), making the territory the eighth biggestmarket for the film.

The highest grossing local film was Meu Nome Nao E Johnny,based on the true story of an infamous drug dealer, which grossed $7.5m(r18m).

These success stories have not been enough to prevent a slidein admissions to 76.9 million to the end of October, compared with 85.5million for the whole of 2007.

Brazil's total box office stands at$261.4m (r625.7m) to date compared with $285.7m (r684m) for all of 2007.

`