ZhangYimou's action film Hero scored an excellent Japanese bow through Warner EntertainmentJapan at the weekend, grossing an estimated $5.3m from 360 screens.

The epic drew433,786 admissions and ranked second behind holdover local title, BaysideShakedown 2.

According to thedistributor Hero'sopening was 158.6% better than Die Another Day and 289.4% better than The Sum Of AllFears.

Starring Jet Li,Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi, Hero is the biggest grossing film of all timein China where its box office exceeded $30m. Oscar nominated for the bestforeign language film award this year, it has yet to be dated for US releasethrough Miramax Films.

Meanwhile The MatrixReloaded inched closer to the $450mmark at the international box office with an estimated $703,500 haul from 610screens in 37 territories.

Its runningtotal is an estimated $449.2m.