International - India joins the race

The highest new entry, and only newcomer in Screen International's top 10, was India's Race, which opened across 16 territories.

Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan play brothers in the slick thriller involving a life-insurance policy worth millions that pays out to one brother in the event of the death of the other.

The film, which took $9,895,283 over 1,212 screens in its first week, is co-directed by Abbas and Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla (better known as the amalgamated Abbas-Mastan) and is distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. It boasted the week's third-highest screen average of $8,164.

The other two new entries in the top 20 made similar dents in the chart, with Russia's Radio Day entering at number 15, and South Korea providing Kim Hae-gon's Fate one spot lower. With Central Partnership distributing in four territories, Radio Day has accumulated $2,667,260 from 440 screens for an average of $6,062. This closely matched the business that CJ Entertainment did with Fate, taking $2,518,355 and averaging $7,034 across 358 screens in its home territory.

Franco-Italian dominance

Paolo Genovese and Luca Miniero's Questa Notte E'Ancora Nostra opened in Italy and reached 26 in the chart with $1,945,795 from 399 screens, while Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long ... (Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'Aime) took $1,943,005 on 261 screens in France for 27th spot. This week's 28th biggest film internationally was Sergio Rubini's Colpo D'Occhio with $1,814,983 from 387 screens in Italy.

These, combined with the existing films in the table, meant French films grossed $22,933,928 this week, and Italian films $6,025,051 - jointly accounting for 15.4% of the international chart.

This was reinforced by the continued strong performance of Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis, which boasted a huge screen average of $19,673, more than double the second-highest average of Die Welle, whose figure stood at $8,251.

Playing at just 991 screens in three territories, the Dany Boon comedy had fourth week takings totalling $19,496,166, with cumulative grosses standing at $137,169,803.

Gang of losers

Drillbit Taylor was the only US new entry in the chart, reaching 24 in its opening week. Steven Brill directs Owen Wilson as the eponymous schoolyard bodyguard hired by a gang of losers to protect them from the local bully. The film took $2,000,326 in three territories, and is being distributed by Paramount and UIP.

Horton Hears A Who! and 10,000 BC continued to fight it out at the top of the table, with 10,000 BC managing to hold off the competition for the second week running, grossing $26,813,911 and taking its total past the $100m mark to reach $117,815,111.

Horton came a close second with $24,505,445 taken at 6,066 screens for an average of $4,040.

The Mexico-US co-production La Misma Luna, distributed by 20th Fox, was the lowest new entry at number 38, taking $1,323,946 at 351 screens.