FortissimoFilms has acquired worldwide rights to MediaCorp Raintree Pictures' The Maid, Singapore's first local horrorfilm.

It will belaunched internationally at the American Film Market in November.

On hometurf, the picture opened at number one over the weekend, raking in $0.7m(S$1.16m) including previews.

On itsopening day, it grossed $71,600 (S$119,419) on 32 prints, narrowly beating The Best Bet to become the highestopening for a local film and the fourth highest for all films in Singapore.

Written anddirected by home-grown filmmaker Kelvin Tong, The Maid tells the story of a Filipina maid played by Filipinaactress Alessandra De Rossi (Small Voices)who arrives in Singapore for work during the Chinese seventh month when thespirits of the dead are let loose.

The Maid opened simultaneously in Malaysiawhere it added $92,000 (RM350,000) from 22 prints over the weekend - the country'shighest opening for a Singapore film.

Prior tothe Fortissimo deal, Raintree has pre-sold the film to Thailand'sSahamongkolfilm and the Philippines' MovPix. Both territories are scheduled torelease the film around October.

Also openedlast week in Singapore was Perth,written and directed by Djinn (aka Ong Lay Jinn). It was for the first timethat the city-state had two local films open in the same week.

Releasedthrough Shaw on four prints, Perth took$5,325 (S$20,174) over the weekend.

Despite itsso-so opening, the film about an angry 51-year-old man who dreams of migratingto Perth drew positive reviews with one critic describing it as 'the mostcoherent and authentic Singaporean film ever made'.

The film wasscreened at various festivals including Rotterdam, Bangkok, Singapore and SaoPaulo.

Accordingto producer Juan Foo, a French company is expected to acquire the internationalrights to the film within the next few weeks.