International - The only way is up

The second instalment of John Woo's war epic Red Cliff Part II stormed to the top of Screen's international chart for the January 9-11 weekend, after opening in China and Singapore. The film took $15.7m from 1,445 screens, giving the week's second-highest screen average of $10,900.

Distributor China Film Group will hope Part II outperforms the record-breaking run of the first film, which became the highest-grossing Chinese-language film of all time in its home territory, taking $45.7m (rmb312m) in 2008. It took the same record in Japan, where it has now grossed approximately $53m (Yen4.8bn), adding to more than $100m of box-office revenue from Asian territories for the film.

Red Cliff Part II will continue its Asian run with openings in Hong Kong and Taiwan this coming weekend, follow by South Korea (January 22) and Japan (April 10).

Sony Pictures Releasing International's Seven Pounds entered the chart's top three in its third week of international release following decent holdover business and openings in seven territories, including a first-place debut in Italy ($5.2m from 553 screens - an average of $9,400). The film, which reunites Will Smith with The Pursuit Of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino, also opened in Germany (where it placed second for $3.4m from 467 screens), Australia ($1.4m from 261) and Mexico ($1m from 300). The film grossed $13.2m over the three-day weekend from 2,030 screens in 14 markets. It expands this weekend to a further seven markets, including France, Spain, Russia and the UK (see Final Cut, p28).

Three new entries from the US, Defiance, Role Models and Bride Wars, began their international run in the top 20. All opened in the UK in the top four, with Role Models claiming the top spot in the territory (with $3.5m from 352 screens), Bride Wars taking third place ($2.7m from 324) and Defiance following in fourth ($1.7m from 326).