Cast Away took the number one spot in all territories where it opened as the re-teaming of Tom Hanks and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis began its international roll-out over the weekend.

UIP opened the picture in the UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. The film topped the UK with a storming $4.1m, taking more than twice the three-day figure of its nearest rival and delivering a mighty site average of $10,540 from 394 sites.

The drama gave Germany its second best January opening ever after 1998's Titanic, with a four-day take of $5.7m from 601 screens. Austria also yielded its top spot where the film took $599,958 from just 73 screens, providing another massive average of $8,219. Despite having yet to open in French-speaking parts of Switzerland the film managed to show receipts of $584,453.

Italy finally saw home-grown favourite Ask Me If I'm Happy fall as Cast Away claimed another victory with three-day figures of $2.6m. Sweden, the first of the Nordic territories to receive the film, recorded a three-day opening of $500,019.

The international roll-out continues over the next few weeks starting with France and Belgium on January 17th, Australia and Netherlands on the 18th and Spain and Denmark on the 19th. It will then move on to Hong Kong on January 24 and Brazil, Norway and Iceland on January 26.

In North America, where it is distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film continues to draw a crowd. Although knocked down to second position by Paramount's Save The Last Dance, Cast Away still took $19.8m over its fourth weekend. The film's domestic total gross currently stands at $167.8m.