Sony's Spider-Man 2 remaineda dominant international force at the weekend, swinging past $300m with a$17.5m estimated haul on 7,915 screens that raised the picture's running totalto $302m.

The highlights were $3.6m on858 prints in its third weekend in France despite a decent 37% drop to ranksecond on $27m, and $3.1m for $39.1m after the same amount of time in the UK,where the picture was expected to finish top in a close race with new releaseKing Arthur.

The UK is currentlySpider-Man 2's strongest market, however Columbia TriStar Film DistributorsInternational (CTFDI) executives predict the role of standard-bearer lookslikely to head east to Japan next weekend.

In its fourth weekend theAsian territory produced $2.8m and a small 11% drop for a $37.1m running total,ranking second behind Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Spider-Man 2 ispredicted to be the strongest picture in Japan for the rest of the summer.

The comic book adaptation isnow the fourth biggest release of all time in Brazil, where it added $600,000despite a 37% drop for $14.7m and remained number one for the fifth weekend ina row.

CTFDI executives expect itto pass The Passion Of The Christ and Spider-Man in the next 10 days to becomethe second biggest picture ever in Brazil behind Titanic.

In its second weekend inIndia, Spider-Man 2 added $1.1m on a widest ever 325 prints and fell 31% for$4m.

Next weekend CTFDI will openit in China, becoming the first Hollywood picture to open since the Chinesegovernment's Hollywood blockade came into force earlier this summer.