It also was an outstanding weekend for Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures' PG-13 rated romantic comedy America's Sweethearts, which opened in second place to a very engaging ESTIMATED $31.0 million at 3,011 theaters ($10,296 per theater).

Directed by Joe Roth, it stars Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones and John Cusack.

"We're delighted. Those are all boxcar numbers in the world of romantic comedies," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing & distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning. "You look at films like Runaway Bride on July 30, 1999 with $35.0 million and a $152 million total (in domestic theaters). That was the biggest romantic comedy opening ever. In the world of romantic comedies, you've got Runaway Bride as the biggest and then What Women Want on Dec. 15, 2000 with $33.6 million and (a domestic theatrical) cume of $183 million.

"And we don't have to take a back seat after that to anybody. You've got Notting Hill, which opened May 28, 1999 to $27.6 million on a four day Memorial Day (holiday) weekend and (wound up doing) $116 million. You've got You've Got Mail, which opened Dec. 18, 1998 to $18.4 million and did $115 million. Certainly, as you go further back there's a great indication of romantic comedies that opened in the mid-to-high teens (in millions) and all went and did over $100 million -- like Jerry Maguire ($153.6 million) and Sleepless in Seattle ($126.7 million) and things like that."

Focusing on the huge combined business for JP III and Sweethearts, Blake observed, "It's certainly great for Jurassic Park and their franchise and it's great for us and what we're trying to do. And it's great for the market. This looks like a $140 million weekend and we're even up from last year. It had been going in the other direction (in terms of weekends being down from 2000), so I think this certainly revitalized the summer with two openings of this magnitude and, hopefully, it will be a great second half (of the summer)."

Blake pointed out that, "The hard part is to get a romantic comedy out there in a big way right from Day One. They certainly have -- better than any other genre -- a great track record of holding. That always has been the game plan. To get it open to as good a number as we could versus (what is) certainly different competition, but huge competition as turned out to be the case, and to be that summer movie that's going to hold for a while. I think the genre allows that and all indications are that that's what will happen to us here."

Asked who was on hand opening weekend to see Sweethearts, Blake replied, "We got our initial exit polls and it looks like about 55%-45% women to men. So slightly more women, but really a traditional date movie for the most part. It looks like about the same 55%-45% adults to younger people, using 25 as the cut-off. Certainly we've got something here for the first time this summer -- or one of the only pictures this summer -- that appeals to adults. But it also got the younger contingent, as well. Every indication is that it's playing great."

Looking ahead, Blake pointed out, "If you look at the competition coming up it's all big, but pretty male -- Planet of the Apes and Rush Hour 2, in particular. So I think we're in a very good spot. It's unusual for two pictures to open north of $30 million on the same weekend. I know it happened with The World Is Not Enough and Sleepy Hollow, but it's hard to think of many other examples where pictures got out there in as big a way as this."

While Bride still ranks as Roberts' biggest opening ever, Sweethearts' $31 million launch goes into the record books as her second biggest opening. It overtakes Erin Brockovich, which arrived to $28.1 million on Mar. 17, 2000 and went on to gross $125.5 million in domestic theaters.