Monster's Ball received its international debut last weekend, opening in Switzerland to a strong reception from a limited release.

Opening on 12 screens in the German-speaking region of the country the drama recorded a four-day total of $73,075 to land seventh position in the chart. With a powerful screen average of $6,090, on a par with top-placed title A Beautiful Mind ($6,314), the result is an impressive start to Monster's Ball's international roll-out. Combined with Halle Berry's best actress win for the film at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last weekend, these figures suggest good prospects for Ball's international performance. It has grossed $15.5m to date in North America for Lions Gate Films.

The film opens in the French region of Switzerland on March 20, the same day as its release in France. Ball is distributed in Switzerland by Ascot Elite with Lions Gate International handling international sales.

Meanwhile Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra launched in Germany last weekend to take the lead position for distributor Tobis StudioCanal. However despite taking a good four-day box office of $2.4m from 705 screens the result is well below that of its predecessor, Asterix & Obelix Vs Caesar. The first film opened in March 1999 to score an opening weekend of $3.7m from 664 screens and went on to gross $15.8m in Germany.

The second Asterix film, which stars Christian Clavier and Gerard Depardieu as Asterix and Obelix respectively, alongside Monica Bellucci as Cleopatra, continued to hold the top spot in France in its sixth week on release. Released by Pathe Distribution, the film has now sold 12.9 million tickets in France, equivalent to $61.9m.

In Switzerland, where it is now placed second, it has grossed $2.8m after six weeks on release. International sales for the film is handled by Pathe International.