Paramount's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life received a strong outing in its firstmajor international territory, Hong Kong, over the weekend.

The action adventure claimed $826,168 (HK$6.4m) from 34 locationsover the four-day weekend (July 31-August 3), resulting in a stellar average of$24,299 per venue and a chart topping position.

Cradle Of Life gave distributor UIP, which handles the film in most internationalterritories (notable exceptions being Japan, Germany, Italy and South Korea),its biggest launch of the 2003 so far.

The sequel earned more for UIP in its first four days in Hong Kongthan the distributor's previous blockbuster launch, The Hulk, took in its first seven days ($792,528)from the same territory.

Also playing in four other Asian territories for a second weekend,the film collected $1.9m over the weekend for an 11-day running total of $4.8m.

However, the film suffered big drop offs in these four withMalaysia ($792,305 to date) and The Philippines ($1.2m) down 55% from theirlaunch weekends, and Singapore ($812,369) down 63%. Thailand ($1.2m) saw the smallestpercentage fall at 46%.

Meanwhile UIP's animated DreamWorks title, Sinbad: Legend OfThe Seven Seas, saw nomajor openings this week. The film has taken $22.8m to date from internationalterritories. UIP handles all except South Korea.