Denzel Washington is proving his star appeal once again across Europe with his latest film Training Day. The crime drama in which Washington plays against type as a corrupt Los Angeles cop, opened this week to strong figures in Italy and Scandinavia as well as continuing to perform with gusto in France and Spain.

The film took a healthy three-day opening in Italy of $667,857 (L 1.5bn) from just 175 screens to record a solid screen average of $3,816, but had to settle for second place behind Bridget Jones's Diary - which has made $10.2m in the territory after five weeks. Training Day also took second place spots in Iceland ($24,763 from 4 screens) and Norway ($146,040 from 30 screens).

In Finland it claimed the top spot with a resounding $60,412 from 15 screens, an average of $4,027 per screen. The film also opened in Denmark where it claimed $69,836 from 18 screens for an impressive average of $3,880.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and co-starring Ethan Hawke, Training Day has already played two weeks in France and Spain. The film has sold 497,391 tickets in France to date from 241 screens, playing particularly well in Paris where is has seen 159,247 admissions from 21 screens after two weeks on release. In Spain, where it has held second position in both weeks on release, Washington's latest has already racked up $1.5m. The film is currently showing on 180 screens after opening on 177 for figures of $715,538 (pts133.2m) - a grand average of $4,043.

Training Day opens in Australia this week, Germany on Dec 6 and the UK on Jan 11, 2002. It has grossed $74.2m in North America so far after seven weeks on release for distributor Warner Bros.

Next week sees another Warner title, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, unleashed on multiple territories including Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway.