German independent distributor Constantin Film has re-asserted its status as the most successful distributor of German films this year, largely due to the phenomenal performance of local Western spoof, Der Schuh Des Manitu.

After only 18 days on release, the film, which was co-produced by Constantin Film's in-house production arm, has racked up over 3.2m admissions and even saw its weekend admissions climb by more than 20% over last week to become the most successful local film of 2001 so far.

Constantin also released the other two most successful German films of the first seven months: Dennis Gansel's teen comedy Maedchen Maedchen (Girls On Top; 1.75m admissions) and Franziska Buch's contemporary version of Erich Kaestner's children's classic Emil Und Die Detektive (1.55m admissions). In total, Constantin has a market share of over 60% of all cinema admissions for German films this year.