Jen and Vince's Hot "Break-Up"

Jen and Vince = hot couple.

Well, at the box-office for a known fact.

The relationship spat movie The Break-Up, starring the ex-Mrs Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, and her very close friend, Vince Vaughn, surpassed the expectations of distributors and exhibitors to open with an estimated weekend gross of $39.2 million.

Dodgeballing unfriendly reviews, the very successful debut uncoupled X-Men: The Last Stand from the top slot, pushing the mutant melee movie down to a second place, second week gross of $34.3 million.

"Yes, I was surprised," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, Inc., the company that tallies the studios' numbers, as he commented on this "rather amazing gross" for a movie which even its own distributor had expected to gross somewhere between $20-30 million.

Dergarabedian credits the result to "the title telling you exactly what you are going to get," the story being "a subject everyone can relate to," and public curiosity about the stars' relationship, which, though perhaps not as intense as the fascination with the new parent duo of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, is nevertheless very high profile.

"Just as audiences wanted to see that pair (Brangelina) so they want to see this pair (Jen and Vince)," he said, also noting that Aniston and Vaughn are stars that have crossover appeal for both men and women.

However, it was women who dominated the The Break-Up audience, which Universal reported was 67 percent female, compared to 30 percent male, and equally split between below and above 30-year-old ticket buyers.

Additionally, Universal was able to report some sweet records for the after-the-romance-is-over comedy, which critics had almost universally dubbed unfunny and un-engaging, but which 68 percent of audiences chose to see because of "the humor," while 63 percent also said that after hoping for a laugh, it was Aniston's name that made them buy tickets, and 62 percent said it was Vaughn which pulled them in.

The PG-13 rated release, opening at 3,070 locations, where it averaged a heavy $12,410 per screen, achieved the third best ever opening for a so-called romantic comedy, only beaten by Will Smith's Hitch, which had debuted last year with $43 million, and 50 First Dates, teaming Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, for a 2004 Valentine's Day debut of $40 million. The Break-Up was also dubbed the highest grossing romantic comedy ever to open in June, the wedding month universally considered the season to market romance.

The movie also surpassed the $33.9 million opening of last year's very popular anarchic comedy (and current MTV Movie Awards winner) Wedding Crashers, which co-starred Vaughn.

On a personal level, the new venture provided the popular big man with his third best opening gross, only surpassed by his also-ran presence in the mammoth dino drama The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the slick Mr. and Mrs. Smith, (starring, umm--oh yes, Jen's ex, Brad Pitt and that other woman, Angelina Jolie.) For ex-Friends star Aniston the opening was her second best ever, behind the huge $67.9 million for Bruce Almighty, headlined by Jim Carrey.

X-Men: The Last Stand was down a major 67 percent this weekend compared to the first three days of its huge opening over the Memorial Day weekend. Fox's exhibition chief Bruce Snyder didn't find that alarming, noting it was "a normal drop" after such a huge kick-off. However he noted that the industry was surprised how strongly The Break-Up had opened, while acknowledging how good that was for "business as whole."

Playing at 3,714 sites, 24 more than its debut, the PG-13 sci-fi sequel averaged a still potent $9,249 per screen and has now reached a domestic gross of $175.6 million, a total it achieved in just 10 days, much swifter than similar business racked up by X-2: X-Men United, which took 18 days to reach that mark, but eventually racked up $215 million.

In contrast, DreamWorks' crazy critters 'toon Over the Hedge only dropped 24 percent in its third week, remaining in the third place slot, where the PG-rated family friendly fare earned $20.6 million to bring its current gross to $112.3 million.

In fourth place was the religious themed thriller The Da Vinci Code. Also in its third week, it dropped 43 percent, but grossed $18.6 million to bring its current domestic gross to $172.6 million. Sony stressed the controversial adaptation of Dan Brown's popular novel was still number one overseas and worldwide has now grossed $581 million.

Business this week was again top heavy, dropping sharply after the top four, although Sony was also pleased to note that the modestly budgeted road comedy RV, starring Robin Williams, was in the seventh slot after six weeks of release, where its $3.3 million pushed its overall gross to $61.8 million.

Expanding from very limited release to 77 sites, Al Gore's environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth moved up 373 percent, entering the top ten in ninth place. Averaging a very healthy $17,292 per screen, the PG-rated Paramount Classics release harvested $1.3 million to bring its current two-week gross to $1.9 million.

Opening in limited release was the touchy-feely Peaceful Warrior, based on Dan Millman's self-help book and starring Nick Nolte as a wise old man and Scott Mechlowicz as a soul searching gymnast. The PG-13 Lionsgate release earned $77,000 at ten sites.

At 24 sites Paramount Classics R-rated Korean action movie Typhoon, earned just $48,216.

Overall, the top twelve films grossed $128.8 million, which though expectedly down sharply--31.5 percent--from last weekend's big holiday total, was up 1.5 percent over this time last year. That bodes well for continued summer time success, especially as the highly anticipated Disney-Pixar 'toon Cars revs onto the screens next weekend.

Final figures are due Monday. Top ten estimates follow:

1. The Break-Up, $39.1 million
2. X-Men: The Last Stand, $34 million
3. Over The Hedge, $20.6 million
4. The Da Vinci Code, $18.3 million
5. Mission: Impossible III, $4.6 million
6. Poseidon, $3.5 million
7. RV, $3.2 million
8. See No Evil, $2 million
9. An Inconvenient Truth, $1.3 million
10. Just My Luck, $825,000