According to Variety, Casino Royale broke the bank at the overseas box office with $66.2 million at 6,600 playdates in 50 markets. The James Bond pic wiped out rivals via a strong second U.K. frame plus socko launches throughout Western Europe as it led in every new market, and posted the sixth-biggest weekend of 2006 internationally with an impressive per-location average of about $10,000.

The film saw offshore cume hit $128.2 million and worldwide grosses total $222.4 million.

Casino Royale took in more than double the combined grosses of the next four pics -- "Borat," The Departed, Saw III and Open Season. Casino looks likely to surpass the record worldwide gross for a Bond pic of $431 million, set by Die Another Day four years ago, thanks to two factors -- no other tentpoles of similar magnitude will hit international markets soon and openings are still coming in big markets Japan, South Korea, Australia, Italy and Mexico.

Casino Royale also will likely keep the 2006 foreign box office total for the five major distribs (BVI, Fox, Sony, UIP, Warner) on track to exceed the 2004 record of $8.5 billion and finish far ahead of last year's $7.9 billion.

Thanks to Casino Royale, Sony's posted its best year ever in overseas box office with $1.39 billion, surpassing the 2002 mark of $1.31 billion. The Da Vinci Code accounted for $532 million in foreign takings earlier this year.

Casino Royale was released November 17th, 2006 and stars Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian. The film is directed by Martin Campbell.