The Hero: Love Story Of A Spy shows no promise of being a hit abroad.

Sunny Deol, who has never been a big draw overseas, except for the odd Ghayal, saw his much-hyped movie open to unspectacular numbers in North America. (The box-office figures from the United Kingdom were unavailable till Wednesday.)

Playing in 21 theatres in North America, director Anil Sharma's The Hero grossed $130,000 in three days. If it follows the usual 45-50 per cent attrition for Hindi movies in North America, it might end with a $350,000 gross.

Films like Pukar and Sarfarosh, with themes of patriotism and espionage, have grossed more than $600,000 in North America. They each opened in more than 40 theatres.

Deol and Sharma were also unlucky with Gadar -- Ek Prem Katha. A huge hit in India, the movie barely grossed $200,000 in North America.

Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who constitute a substantial part of the audience for desi movies abroad, generally stay away from films that they perceive to be anti-Pakistan. It is only when Indians see them in overwhelming numbers that films like Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir ($1 million) or John Mathew Mathan's Sarfarosh ($800,000) score high at the box office.

With The Hero not seeing much success, North America still awaits its first solid desi hit this year. The recent release Ek Aur Ek Gyarah also had a disappointing run, with about $150,000 grossed in two weeks.

Director Gurinder Chadha, who was to make London for Sunny Deol (later directed by Deol as Dillagi) many years ago but quit following differences with him over the script, is having the last laugh, now that Bend It Like Beckham is a hit in North America.

The $5 million movie, which has grossed about $50 million outside America, has made about $4 million in its initial American run.

Over the weekend, the movie rose from number 16 to number 14 on the box-office chart. 

The feel-good comedy, distributed by Fox Searchlight, added about 100 theatres over the weekend, taking its total to 216. Its $1.37 million weekend gross was 20 per cent more than its previous week's collection.

The film received good reviews in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Memphis and Halifax. 'Bend It Like Beckham is a many-flavoured movie, like the Indian cuisine that its spunky heroine is required to learn,' wrote Margaret A McGurk in The Cincinnati Enquirer. 'Director Gurinder Chadha neatly blends sports, coming-of-age and culture-clash genres in the story of Jasminder Bhamra (Parminder K Nagra), the daughter of Sikh immigrants living comfortably in the English suburbs.'

With another expansion planned for Friday, Bend it Like Beckham is working hard to reach the top 10 list.