The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is the first Narnia movie

The Narnia film took an estimated $20m (�11.26m) at the weekend in cinemas outside the US and Canada, taking its cumulative takings to $319m (�179.7m).

It is expected to take over from Toy Story as the most successful big screen release in Disney's history.

In the US, basketball movie Glory Road was the weekend's top film, beating new releases Last Holiday and Hoodwinked.

Long weekend

Despite remaining the biggest film around the world, the Narnia film fell to number four in the US and Canada box office chart.

Last week's number one, torture thriller Hostel, fell to fifth place after taking an estimated $9.6m (�5.4m).

With Monday a public holiday in the US to mark the life of Martin Luther King, some studios are waiting until Tuesday for the long weekend's cinema takings.

US/ CANADA TOP FIVE FILMS 1 Glory Road 2 Last Holiday 3 Hoodwinked 4 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe 5 Hostel Source: Exhibitor Relations

But box office returns are not expected to match last year's Luther King holiday weekend, which was topped by Coach Carter, taking a four-day total of $29.2m (�16.45m).

Despite falling to seven in the chart, Peter Jackson's King Kong has passed the $200m mark after 33 days of release in North America.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, meanwhile, took only 22 days to reach that benchmark.

Narnia has become the first international film release to make $100m in 2006 alone, and remained top of the Australian box office for the fourth week running.