Fox International's I, Robot stamped its authority over the overseas box office at theweekend, grossing $20.8m from 3,489 screens in 18 markets to become the topinternational picture of the weekend.

The sci-fi thriller's distinction of opening number one inall its markets so far suffered setbacks in Argentina and the German-speakingpart of Switzerland, however there can be no denying that the picture's firstwave of major releases has been a success.

I, Robotgrossed $4.7m on 749 screens in France, and $4.6m on 445 in Spain, where thepicture took 43% market share and represented Will Smith's biggest ever debutin the market.

Other highlights were $2.6m including previews on 243 in SouthKorea for Fox International's seventh biggest ever debut, Mexico's $2.2m on655, and $1.8m on 255 in Taiwan for the distributor's fifth biggest everopening.

Hong Kong produced a superb $876,000 on 55, Malaysia yielded$357,000 on 88, and Australia added $1.8m in its second weekend after a 45%drop for $6m.

Argentina produced $210,000 and ranked second while the picturegrossed $373,000 on 71 Swiss screens, finishing first in the French-speakingpart and second in the German counterpart.

Meanwhile, Fox's The Day After Tomorrow was poised to pass $350m in international ticket sales on Monday (August 2).

The environmental disaster picture had amassed $349.5m by Friday (Jul 30) and, according to Fox International executives, it added an estimated $1m from 17 markets over the weekend.

Elsewhere forFox, the live action version of Garfield opened third in the UK on $2.1m. Overall, the picture grossed$4.4m on 1,443 screens in 13 markets and raised its international running totalto $18.9m.