Warner Bros.' release of Castle Rock Entertainment's PG-13 rated drama Hearts In Atlantis opened solidly in third place to a hearty ESTIMATED $9.53 million at 1,751 theaters ($5,440 per theater).

Directed by Scott Hicks (Shine), it stars Anthony Hopkins.

"We're very pleased with that opening," Warner Bros. Distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning. "It's an extremely competitive weekend. The box office was up (based on Warners' Sunday morning estimates) 20 percent over last year and about 35 percent over last week. We had two movies open extremely wide against us. I think we held our own. We had the largest percentage increase for Saturday over Friday of any (new) movie. I'm anticipating a strong Sunday and I expect this film to hold well in the marketplace. Word of mouth is good. Our audience reactions are excellent. So we're in pretty good shape right now."

Asked if Warners will go wider with Hearts, Fellman replied, "We're going to add a few hundred screens. I don't know many (yet, but) probably a couple of hundred this week."

For the most part, Hearts received favorable reviews. One glaring exception to that was a New York Times review last Friday that ripped the film to shreds. "The New York Times (review) was outrageous," Fellman said. "But, you know, nationally we were up 37 percent on Saturday night over Friday. In New York, the whole market was up 67 percent over Friday. Word of mouth took over in New York. We really did have very favorable reviews overall. We just got beat up pretty bad by the Times, which I thought was going to hurt us more. It hurt us on Friday night in New York. Then Saturday we just jumped right back. Friday we did $2.875 million and Saturday we did $3.95 million. I'm looking for a good Sunday (and am estimating) $3.27 million."

Asked who was there opening weekend, Fellman replied, "About 75 percent of the audience was over 25. It was very similar to our sneaks (the previous weekend)--about 55 percent female and 45 percent male."

Paramount's PG-13 rated urban appeal drama-comedy Hardball slid three pegs to fourth place in its third week with an okay ESTIMATED $5.2 million (-35%) at 2,218 theaters (+8 theaters; $2,344 per theater). Its cume is approximately $26.3 million, heading for $40 million.

Directed by Brian Robbins, it stars Keanu Reeves.

Dimension Films' hit PG-13 thriller The Others fell three rungs to fifth place in its eighth week, continuing to hold very well with an ESTIMATED $5.1 million (+1%) at 2,724 theaters (-77 theaters; $1,872 per theater). Others, which cost only $17 million to make, has a cume of approximately $87.0 million, heading for $100 million in domestic theaters.

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar, it stars Nicole Kidman.

"It's really surprised a lot of people just in terms of its word of mouth potential," David Kaminow, senior vice president, marketing for Dimension's parent company Miramax, said Sunday morning. "Audiences just keep coming back to it. It's obviously a very satisfying experience. It's held in the Top Five ever since it opened.

"The fact that audiences are loving it means it's obviously going to be a very profitable picture for us, having cost just $17 million to make--which is always a nice return on your investment."