Alexander is on course to take four times its North Americangross from international markets, according to Moritz Borman, head of thefilm's sales and production house Intermedia.

Another strong week in Europe led by Italy's opening tally of $3.7m(Euros 2.8m) saw Oliver Stone's epic retain the international box office lead.Adding 16 new territories at the weekend, including Brazil and Hong Kong, thefilm has already taken 72% of its worldwide total gross from internationalterritories, on a par with Troy and King Arthur's split.

"We've achieved three times the North American total," Borman said. "Wecould make it four times. It's too early to tell how Japan will perform. Spainis in its second week and it is still number one, outperforming The Aviator."

There were ugly drop offs in key markets such as the UK, where the filmfell 49%. But, since its disappointing opening in the US in November, the filmhas racked up a cumulative international gross of $89.1m (as of Jan 16) and,with Australia still to open, the $100m mark is assured in the next few days.

Elsewhere, table topping launches in the UK and Germany, backed up byMexico, Switzerland, Israel and Austria, saw Mike Nichols' Closer flyback into the chart at six for Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle launched in South Korea. It playedsecond fiddle to local release Wet Dreams 2 (at number 19 on theinternational chart), but still rose one place on the international chart.

Warner Bros' Ocean's Twelve passed the $150m mark internationallylast weekend and, with Japan and the UK yet to open, the film should continueon to $200m.

Turkish title Hababam Sinifi Askerde opened in Turkey, easilyseeing off local competition from The Incredibles and The PolarExpress to lead in the territory. Combined with a Belgian launch throughMax Films, it proved the highest new entry on this week's international table.

Launches in the UK, Denmark and Sweden propelled marionette-comedy TeamAmerica: World Police back into the table. The UK three-day debut ($2.9m)was nearly enough to surpass the film's Australian seven-week total ($3.7m),which is the highest territory gross to date. In Germany, the only other majorterritory to receive it so far, Team America has grossed $1m in twoweeks.

See this week's ScreenInternational for analysis of Alexander's international turnaround

Forfull international chart, click here

The international table iscompiled each week by Leonard Klady for Screen International.