The final part of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy added another $10.9m to its box office takings as it reigned supreme at the top spot, bringing the total so far to $67.8m and a screen average of $8,193 from each of the 1,341 prints occupying almost a third of all of Germany's cinema screens.

The international box office success of The Return Of The King will have sparked considerable local interest since the third part of the trilogy was financed by private German individuals with large tax burdens investing a total of $150m through a placement by the Hannover Leasing media fund.

Meanwhile, Buena Vista International's release of Calendar Girls - which was the opening film at Filmfest Hamburg at the end of September - was the weekend's strongest opener with a $5,771 average from 105 screens, while UIP's Honey at No. 2 has proven to be a surprise hit with a $ 5,154 screen average and a $4.6m total.

The two German films Luther and The Miracle Of Bern are proving to be long-runners since they have now been in the Top Ten for ten and twelve weeks, respectively. Wortmann's film is likely to receive another surge of publicity with the decision by the State Minister for Culture Christina Weiss and Berlin's Senator for Education Klaus Boeger to stage a special screening of the film for 1,000 schoolchildren in the capital's Zoopalast on 12 January, organised by distributor Senator Film with the Institute for Cinema and Film Culture.

According to Weiss, The Miracle Of Bern had been chosen for showing during lesson time "because it says a lot about postwar Germany and the path to a new self-confidence" while Boeger pointed out that a critical approach to cinema should be a component of any school education. "We want to promote the ability to cope with the medium and be able to judge the quality of a film."