Columbia Tristar's crime caper The Punisher opened at number one in Italy last weekend, knockingoff Warner Bros's Harry Potter and ThePrisoner of Azkaban after five weeks of box office glory.

The weekend's only other new release, Simon Cellan Jones's The One And Only, opened on 44 prints atnumber 14, grossing a poor $24,372 for Fandango.

Meanwhile, Turkish film Distantsurprisingly scored the box office's second highest per screen average.Distributed by Lady Film on 11 screens, Distanthas earned just over $55,000 three weeks into its release with a screen averageof $1,484.