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Mel Gibson captured first place as We Were Soldiers invaded theaters and marched off with $20.2 million.

40 Days and 40 Nights kicked off in second place with a sexy $12.5 million, a less arousing arrival than the $15-20 million that Hollywood handicappers anticipated.

Top Five ticket sales also got a boost from three holdovers. John Q was alive and well in third place with $8.5 million. Dragonfly was an okay fourth with $6.8 million. And Return to Never Land showed good legs in fifth place with $6.5 million.

Key films--those grossing $500,000 or more--did nearly $98 million, up 18 percent from about $83 million last year.

THE TOP TEN

Paramount and Icon Productions' R rated Vietnam war drama We Were Soldiers blasted its way into first place with an energetic ESTIMATED $20.2 million at 3,143 theaters ($6,427 per theater).

Written and directed by Randall Wallace, it stars Mel Gibson.

We Were Soldiers' average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.

"It's the biggest gross for this weekend (beating last year's opening of) The Mexican with $20.1 million," Paramount Distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning.

"The exit polls were through the roof. The top two boxes were 91 percent--70 percent excellent and 21 percent very good. The definite recommend was 80 percent. The index score was an 89.4. It's the highest exit polls we've ever had (and suggests the film) should have a long run. That was sort of proven out by the bump that we got Saturday over Friday of 43 percent."

Asked who was on hand opening weekend, Lewellen said, "The audience was a little older. 70 percent were over 25. It was 56 percent males and 44 percent females, which is really higher than we expected for the female audience (given the film's R rating and violence). So it bodes well for the playability of the picture."

Miramax's R rated romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights opened in second place to an engaging ESTIMATED $12.5 million at 2,225 theaters ($5,617 per theater).

Hollywood handicappers had been anticipating a sexier launch in the $15-20 million range.

Directed by Michael Lehmann, it stars Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

"We're very happy with the opening," Miramax senior vice president, marketing David Kaminow said Sunday morning. "It's another great partnership with Universal after last spring's Bridget Jones's Diary. The film played about 60 percent female, 40 percent male. (It was mostly) 17-34 with a concentration of 17-25. So it's definitely skewing young.

"We're going to try and keep that audience strong and then expand this weekend in terms of trying to get a broader (demographic with) some of the older audience, as well -- some of the 25-34 year old date crowd, who may respond more to the fact that it's from the producers of Bridget Jones and Notting Hill and so we'll highlight some of the better reviews that we got. So that's the plan, moving forward. But we're real happy with this opening."