Da Vinci Code grosses over $410m

Los Angeles: The Da Vinci Code led the foreign box office for a third weekend as its total raced to $410m — more than double its North American haul of $172.7m.

Sony forecast the film version of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel will “in the next couple of days” surpass ’02’s Spider-Man (overseas gross of $417.9m) and ’04’s Spider-Man 2 ($410.5m) to become the studio’s biggest international hit ever. Da Vinci earned $52m over the weekend. It was No. 1 in Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain and six other European markets, as well as Argentina and New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has banned The Da Vinci Code following calls from both minority Christians and majority Muslims. The screening of the film in Pakistan, or possession of it on video cassettes or discs, was prohibited and unlawful, said Jalil Abbas, secretary of the Ministry of Culture. “The film is sacrilegious to all religions, that’s why we did this,” Abbas said.