After just three weekends onrelease in the UK and Ireland, the 21st official James Bond film CasinoRoyale has already become the highest-grossing film of the franchise in theterritory.

Grossing $73.45m (£37.1m) asof Sunday Dec 3, Casino Royalesurpassed 2002's Die AnotherDay, which grossed $69.6m (£36m), over the weekend.

The new film already rankssecond on the highest grossing films of year in the UK, beating Sony stablemate The Da Vinci Code, which grossed $58.8m (£30.4m). Only Pirates Of TheCaribbean: Dead Man's Chest has played better, $102m (£52m).