Mission: Impossible 2's opening in France last Wednesday scooped an impressive $6.8m in its first five days. Playing on 769 screens across the country, the John Woo-Tom Cruise picture pulled in 1,312,595 admissions ousting Gladiator from its five-week rule at the top of the box office chart.

Although this is one of the highest openings this year, it further emphasises the huge opening of Taxi 2 in April when Luc Besson's production broke the five-day gross record with 2,951,255 admissions from 830 screens.

M:I2 has now reaped $225m from international territories, bringing its worldwide total to $437m, as of August 1. It's performance in Japan has been a runaway success where it has taken over $50m after three-and-a-half weeks. This compares with the blockbuster gross of $118m taken in 13 weeks for UIP's Jurassic Park in 1993.

Only four territories remain on the release schedule: Poland, which releases M:I2 this weekend, Croatia, Czech Republic and Greece wraps up the roll-out in October.

Top Five International M:I2 territories

Territory (Dist)/Time on release/Gross to date

Japan (UIP) 3 wks, 4 days $51.2m
Germany (UIP) 3 wks, 6 days $21.5m
UK (UIP) 3 wks, 5 days $21.2m
Korea (UIP) 6 wks, 4 days $13.3m
Australia (UIP) 8 wks, 6 days $12.9m

Source: Screen International