Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin enjoyed a flurry of strong opening days in Europe this week, grossing $4.7 million in France, $237,776 in Belgium and $161,549 in Holland.

Sony, which is distributing the movie in those territories, is tickled by the performance.

Internal Sony emails note that the opening day in France is bigger than Spider-Man, the first and fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movies, all Shrek movies and all Lord of the Ring movies.

The studio expects that Spielberg's stop-motion-animated film will gross $18.4 million in France this weekend.

Sony is expecting around $1.8 million in Belgium and $1.4 million in Holland.

In the movie, young adventurer Tintin and his friend Capt. Haddock go searching for a sunken treasure ship that was commanded by one of Haddock's ancestors.

The movie, which Spielberg directed and Peter Jackson produced, is set for a December 21 U.S. release. Paramount is handling the domestic release.

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