"What a weekend," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing & distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning, referring to both Evil's strong opening and the overall strength of the marketplace. "I looked back five years and I can't find a $100 million weekend in March -- much less a $135-140 million weekend."

Blake observed, "It's a $30 million negative film and we'll be in profit by about 2 o'clock this afternoon. I think it exceeded everyone's expectations. It really is a case of (getting) our audience -- males -- but also very strong young female (attendance). So we really got both the older teenagers and the young adults, both male and female, which I think you can credit (to) the casting of Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez that really expanded the normal horror or video game young male skew.

"Basically, what we ended up with in our exit polls was 85 percent in the Top Two Boxes (excellent and very good) from young males and 77 percent definite recommend. But we had 82 percent in the Top Two Boxes and 70 percent definite recommend from young females. We believe that's expanding your normal audience, which tends to be loyal but contained, and we got it a little broader than that even on a pretty tough weekend (in terms of competition)."

Blake clearly was pleased with Screen Gems' marketing of the picture: "Again, Screen Gems and (marketing head) Valerie Van Galder really, as usual, did their terrific marketing job."

Evil, Blake said, is being released through Sony in "domestic and certain international territories, including all of Latin America."

"It's very exciting for Constantin," Mitch Horwits, president of Constantin, which financed the film's production. Constantin, which is owned by Bernd Eichinger, is based in Munich.

Horwits, who is based in Los Angeles, observed, "We're extremely excited. It's probably an understatement, but I don't know what else to say. Screen Gems and Sony did a fantastic job. They had a terrific campaign. They hit the core audience and they really helped expand the core."

Evil was, Horwits said, "the first picture we had done with Screen Gems and we're certainly hoping to do more business (with Sony and Screen Gems)."

Putting the film's cost in the very modest area of $30 million, Horwits said it should be profitable for all concerned. In terms of international distribution, Constantin sells its product territory by territory. "We utilize sales agents," he explained. "In this case, Intermedia acted as Constantin's sales agent and licensed the picture outside of Germany and France. We have a French partner, who was involved in the production, called Davis Films. We basically hire (Intermedia) as our agent. They have no financial interest in the picture. They act as our sales agent and weren't involved in the domestic deal. That's something that we did."

Warner Bros.' PG-13 rated action comedy Showtime from Village Roadshow Pictures and NPV Entertainment third with a solid ESTIMATED $15.36 million at 2,917 theaters ($5,266 per theater).

Directed by Tom Dey, it stars Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy and Rene Russo.

"We're right on track and, hopefully, we'll hang in there for a while," Warner Bros. Distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning.