INTERNATIONAL

Universal International reported Sunday morning that its American Pie 2 opened last Thursday to record breaking first place grosses in Germany. The film's $5.9 million gross for Thursday through Saturday was the market's biggest opening weekend of the year and also included the year's biggest opening day. Universal said Pie 2's opening was 4 percent bigger than Pearl Harbor, 17 percent ahead of Hannibal, 23 percent bigger than The Mummy Returns, 31 percent larger than Jurassic Park III and 58 percent better than Planet Of The Apes.

Pie 2's opening in Austria also saw it hit first place with a very strong Friday-Saturday gross of about $555,000.

Universal's The Fast and the Furious kicked off in France, opening there in first place last Wednesday. The studio said grosses for the weekend would not be known until Monday. The picture began its release in Southeast Asia this weekend, opening in Singapore to a solid $170,000 at 29 screens. In Australia, Fast grossed $645,000 for its second weekend, bringing its cume there to $3 million.

In other territories, Fast took in $722,000 in the U.K. for Friday-Saturday, raising its cume after three weeks to $6.6 million. In Mexico, in its fourth week its two-day gross was $130,000 and its cume is $3 million.

Universal said Fast's international cume is now $18 million with 30 countries still to open. Domestically, the picture has done about $143.8 million through this weekend.

Universal also reported continuing strength for its release of Bridget Jones's Diary, which it co-financed with Miramax (which released it domestically). In its sixth weekend in Germany, Bridget ranked second (after Pie 2) with $420,000 for two days and a cume of $15.5 million. It opened in Japan to a very strong six day cume of $4.2 million, ranking second to the local Japanese hit Spirited Away.

Universal said Bridget's international cume is now an impressive $143 million with 10 countries still to open. Domestically via Miramax Bridget grossed a solid $71.5 million.

WEEKEND COMPARISONS

Key films--those grossing more than $500,000--took in approximately $71.08 million, up about 24.04 per cent from the comparable weekend last year when key films grossed $57.3 million.

This weekend's key film gross was up about 34.11 percent from last weekend of this year, when key films took in approximately $53.0 million.

Last year, Buena Vista's opening week of Remember the Titans was first with $20.91 million at 1,865 theaters ($11,210 per theater); and Warner Bros.' second week of its reissue of The Exorcist was second with $7.21 million at 1,150 theaters ($6,266 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $28.1 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $33.7 million.