Powered by mightyperformances from The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot and Garfield, Fox International passed $1bn in 2004 ticket sales this week.

As of Oct 21, thedistributor reported a $1.07bn overseas gross, marking the fourth time it haspassed the milestone following 1998, 1999 and 2002.

The road to $1bn began inearnest with the $85.4m international opening weekend in late May of disasterpicture The Day After Tomorrow,which went on to gross $355.7m.

Comedy adaptation Garfield grossed $114.6m gross and is still active in someterritories, while sci-fi thriller I, Robot has amassed $188m and will look towards a strongopening in Italy this weekend to propel it past $200m.

I, Robot set a record for Fox International when it held onto the top spot in Japan for the fifth consecutive weekend last weekend.

Comedy Dodgeball is currently on $45.9m with several majorterritories still to open, while The Passion Of The Christ took $58m in Latin America.

Twentieth Century Fox pickedup Passion for Latin America andAsia-Pacific through its first-look production deal with Mel Gibson and BruceDavey's Icon Productions back in February.

"This outstandingachievement reflects our successful efforts to match top quality product withsuperlative marketing campaigns," Fox International president Stephen Mooresaid in a statement.

"We look forward to anotherbanner year in 2005 with the release of Robots, In Her Shoes, Star WarsEpisode III: Revenge Of The Sith, Kingdom Of Heaven, Mr & Mrs Smith and Fantastic Four."