Focusing on Word's weekend, Snyder pointed out, "It had a nice pop from Friday to Saturday. It was a strong Friday. We opened to $5.93 million. We've got Saturday at $7.47 million, up 26 percent. That's very nice for a big opener. Zoolander did the same (sort of increase), by the way. People are going back to the movies."

As for those who speculated that this was the wrong time to release an intense thriller like Word, Snyder observed, "I think quality won out in the end. I was concerned about all of those things that you just mentioned. I didn't know how it would play out and I am delighted to see that the American public said, 'We're going back to our lives.' And it's not just in Don't Say A Word, it's in the business being up (based on Fox's Sunday morning estimates) 20 percent from last year against a $20 million-plus opener (last year) in Remember the Titans. To have this going on is terrific. The public is saying, 'We're going to lead our lives.' If this is an indication of that, then that's wonderful for the country."

Of course, the fact that Word works as well as it does is an important factor in its success. "Quality came out," Snyder said. "I think it's definitely a good movie. I think Zoolander is something that people wanted to see to have laughs with. And I think quality also (was a factor with) Hearts In Atlantis. All three pictures seemed to find their own niche. But, first and foremost, I think Don't Say A Word is about quality. It's a tough subject matter."

Asked about Fox's exit polls, Snyder replied, "34 percent excellent and 41 percent very good overall. That's real solid--75 percent in the Top Two Boxes. Women under 25 seem to be the strongest audience for the picture. They were 85 percent in the Top Two Boxes and (accounted for) a quarter of the audience, which was a little bit surprising to me. I thought it might play a little older than that and it didn't. They (under-25 females) were 25 percent of the audience. So it played to everybody. A broad audience and young.

"What it says is Michael Douglas is still a movie star. At the end of the day, when we did what we did in the smallish towns I kept looking at those and going, 'Well, they're really good.' I think that is (because) he's a movie star."

Paramount and Village Roadshow Pictures' PG-13 youth appeal comedy Zoolander kicked off strongly in second place, laughing all the way to the bank with an ESTIMATED $15.7 million at 2,507 theaters ($6,262 per theater).

Directed by and starring Ben Stiller, it was produced by Scott Rudin, Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld.

"Obviously, we're pleased with it," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning.

"We'd have liked to have been number one, but Don't Say A Word did better than we thought it was going to do. What we found was that our strength was in the bigger markets and their picture seemed to play better in smaller towns. I think that's probably where the difference is."

Reflecting on the upswing in ticket sales this weekend, Lewellen noted, "The market is up overall over last year 15-20 percent (depending on how you calculate comparisons). I think there was a lot of concern particularly with Don't Say A Word with the genre picture that it was--you know, a child in jeopardy--and would people want to go see that (in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks)."

The big jump for key films at the box office, he said, "is the result of the overall product, too--with Hardball holding well, The Others and so forth. I think people were sort of ready to go back to the theaters."