Universal's PG rated family comedy Big Fat Liar opened with smiles in second place to an ESTIMATED $11.74 million at 2,531 theaters ($4,640 per theater).

Directed by Shawn Levy, it stars Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes.

"We're very happy with our opening," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said Sunday morning. "The picture obviously has won over families as their choice for entertainment. The weekend business was really very good considering that overall everybody was concerned about the Olympics. It didn't deter people from going to the movies.

"The driving force of the picture was the fact that it offered comic and family entertainment. Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes are big TV stars and kids relate to that. Our exit polls were incredibly strong for our target audience, which is kids."

Asked what impact the Olympics had in general on the weekend, Rocco replied, "From what I can see, really not much. If you look at the drop from last year, it was driven by our own movie Hannibal (co-financed by Universal, which released it internationally, and MGM, which distributed it domestically) which opened to $58 million. But a $96 million weekend (this year) says that people are watching the Olympics, but they're doing it in their own time and it's not interfering with their out-of-the-home entertainment choices."

Liar should be nicely profitable for Universal, Rocco observed, because, "This picture was a very inexpensive film to make (and only cost) somewhere around $15 million. It's going to be a very profitable film for the studio, which is another reason why we're very excited."

MGM's PG-13 rated action adventure remake Rollerball debuted in third place to a low gear ESTIMATED $9.02 million at 2,762 theaters ($3,267 per theater).

Rollerball was originally set to open last fall. Its release was delayed to enable McTiernan to recut the picture and target it to 12- to 15-year-old boys.

Directed by John McTiernan, it stars Chris Klein and Jean Reno.

Revolution Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' R rated drama Black Hawk Down slid three slots to fourth place in its seventh week of release via Columbia Pictures, still showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $8.0 million (-28%) at 2,964 theaters -179 theaters; $2,699 per theater). Its cume is approximately $86.7 million, heading for $115-125 million and quite possibly more in domestic theaters depending on how well it does in Tuesday's Oscar nominations.

Directed by Ridley Scott, it stars Josh Hartnett.

"I think it's a great position to be in with the Academy nominations coming Tuesday," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing & distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning. "We should be in excess of $87 million by Tuesday. We have high hopes for some nominations to power us even further than what we've accomplished so far. I think the normal course would be probably to be at $100 million prior to the last weekend of the month or, at least, during the last weekend of the month, worst case scenario, and with a little luck on Tuesday maybe we'll even get there a little quicker."

What was the Olympics' effect on the weekend? "I think Friday was noticeably lower," Blake said. "I think Saturday looked better, but I think there's definitely some effect. But you never know for sure. Your best answer as to why a weekend is down is always first to look at the movie releases. Last year you had Hannibal opening to $58 million, which is the top six (films) combined this weekend. There's no question, I think, that the Olympics had some impact, but the surest bet is always to look at the movie competition first."

Buena Vista/Disney's PG rated family comedy Snow Dogs, fell four pegs to fifth place, starting to melt in its fifth week with an ESTIMATED $6.7 million (-34%) at 2,454 theaters (theater count unchanged; $2,741 per theater). Its cume is approximately $59.5 million, heading for $75 million or more.

Directed by Brian Levant, it stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Coburn.