The Spanish movie shot in Malta in 2008 is this year's top-grossing film in Spain after only four days, snagging the top spot for 2009's best opening weekend at its local box office, international entertainment industry publications have said.

Alejandro Amenábar's Roman-Egypt epic Agora, starring actress Rachel Weisz, was premiered in Madrid last week, "charming" Spanish moviegoers, according to Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

The movie, which was shot between March and June last year, directly injecting €17.5 million into the local economy, represented a number of firsts: it was the only movie to be shot in Malta in its entirety; local crew occupied positions normally taken up by foreigners; and an unprecedented three of the principal actors were Maltese.

Released by Fox on Friday, the historical drama earned €7 million in the first four days, thanks largely to a strong weekend that raked in €5.4 million. Some seven million tickets sold, displacing Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the previous top opening weekend with €5.3 million, the newspapers said.

However, it is still the second-highest opening for a local film in Spain, bettered by Santiago Segura's, which made €7.2 million four years ago. Hollywood Reporter said "the film's strong opening leaves it shy of hitting the all-time high for a Spanish film's opening".

The opening follows an unusually aggressive advertising campaign for Spain, spearheaded by broadcaster Telecinco, which saw its film branch, Telecinco Cinema, co-produce the movie with Fernando Bovaira's Mod Producciones and Amenbar's Himenoptero.

Spain's blockbusting opening was Agora's first commercial one worldwide and it exceeded exhibitors' expectations, Variety said.

"We expected good results, but this is spectacular," one multi-plex booker was quoted as saying, predicting Agora would end up with around $32 million in Spain.

Telecinco Cinema CEO Ghislain Barrois was quoted by Variety as saying the reasons for the film's success were "the movie itself, Amenábar, who's a brand, word of mouth, and the blitzkrieg campaign that Fox and Telecinco put together".

Fox and Telecinco's blockbuster-level campaign saw TV, billboard and building advertising, while Amenabar and Weisz have dominated magazine interviews from mid-September.

Filming facts and figures

• A drama set in Roman Egypt in 391 AD, Agora tells the story of a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom, while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria.

• Agora's overall budget - around €55 million - was the second largest for a European movie after Asterix & Obelix.

• The movie stars Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella, son of Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, who died while Max was filming in Malta.

• It is directed by the young Oscar-winning director Alejandro Amenábar. The 37-year-old Spaniard won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for El Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside), and Agora is his second English-language film after The Others, starring Nicole Kidman.

• By the end of shooting, over 700 Maltese were employed with the production crew.

• Construction personnel alone - many of whom were trained with the best in the business - cost the production €2 million.

• About 100 daily players were also cast locally, while 20,000 extra days were used, at a total cost of €1.2 million.

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