Audiences made Hitch their Valentine.

The romantic comedy, in which Will Smith plays a matchmaker with love troubles of his own, scored way more than expected, hooking up $43.1 million, according to final figures Monday--an amount that ranks the film as the biggest Valentine's weekend opening ever.

It's the seventh time Smith has headlined a movie that has opened with at least $40 million. And, according to the tracking Website BoxOfficeMojo.com, gives Smith an opening weekend average of $34 million, the best of any leading man. The versatile actor has achieved the feat across all genres--action, sci-fi, drama, biopic, animation, comedy and now romance.

"He's one of those rare stars that just appeals to everyone, men, women and children. There's no doubt he's somewhat of a king of action, but he is every bit as good in comedy," Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, told the Associated Press.

Sony was feeling particularly warm and fuzzy. Not only did the studio have a winner with the PG-13 Hitch, which costars Kevin James and Eva Mendes, but the studio owned the top three slots. Their PG-13 horror flick Boogeyman, last week's number one, only dropped 46 percent to second with $10.2 million, bringing its gross to $32.8 million. And Sony's PG-rated road comedy Are We There Yet? remained in third place with $8.2 million to reach a four-week tally of $61.3 million.

Sony trumpeted the accomplishment by noting that no studio had pulled off the trifecta since Universal last accomplished it in September 1989 with the unlikely trio of Sea of Love, Uncle Buck and Parenthood.

Hitch opened at 3,575 sites, where it averaged $12,068. The film didn't have any serious competition--the only other major new entry was Pooh's Heffalump Movie, another adventure for the tubby bear and his Hundred Acre Wood pals, targeted at very small kids. The G-rated Disney offering, released at 2,529 sites, averaged just $2,296 for $5.8 million in fifth place.

Another romantic movie, Bride and Prejudice, did manage a similar per-screen average to Hitch--$12,058--but the musical extravaganza, a Bollywood take on Jane Austen's confused lovers tale, was only released at 32 sites. That means the PG-13 Miramax release, directed by Bend It Like Beckham helmer a href="/Facts/People/0,12,45330,00.html">Gurinder Chadha and starring Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai and New Zealand bloke Martin Henderson, only totaled $385,848.

With the Oscars looming ever closer, Million Dollar Baby continued to rake in the bucks in fourth place, earning $7.4 million in its ninth week to reach a gross of $45 million. The Aviator, considered Baby's biggest rival for the top awards, was in eighth place with $4.7 million and has now grossed $82.3 million in nine weeks.

Fox Searchlight remained very happy with its Oscar contender, Sideways, which earned $4.5 million in ninth place at just 1,619 screens. The distributor says the film's $52.8 million domestic gross is now tops for an indie film that has earned a Best Picture nomination, including Lost in Translation and Gosford Park in 2002 and Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1995. Not too shabby for a feature that cost around $15 million to produce.

At big brother Fox, there was good news in that the R-rated thriller Hide and Seek is holding up. The Robert De Niro-Dakota Fanning flick only dropped 39 percent, earning $5.4 million in seventh place to bring its gross to $43.4 million.

In fact, most of the distributors seemed happy this weekend, acting as though love was in the air.

Universal rationalized that the 50 percent drop for its latest romantic comedy, The Wedding Date, was only to be expected when Hitch entered the picture, so the studio considered it okay that the pairing of Debra Messing-Dermont Mulroney fell from second to eighth with $5.56 million at 1,704 theaters, and that the film has grossed just $19.4 million in two weeks.

The mood around Universal was undoubtedly leavened by the continued success of Meet the Fockers, which is in 10th place with $3.5 million after eight remarkable weeks. The sequel's total now stands at $269.9 million. Additionally, the studio had strong returns for its new NC-17 documentary Inside Deep Throat, which explores how the 1972 hard-core porn movie burst into the popular culture in an era when no one would have gotten away with calling a PG-13 movie Meet the Fockers. At just 12 sites the Brian Grazer production averaged $7,392 for $88,709, and next weekend its exposure will double in size.

The top 12 movies grossed a combined $105.2 million, up 18 percent from last weekend, but down 2 percent from the same weekend last year, which was also President's Day Weekend, and was led by 50 First Dates, which debuted with $39.8 million, which set the Cupid Day record broken by Hitch.

Here are the top 10 based on final studio tallies compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Hitch, $43.1 million
2. Boogeyman, $10.2 million
3. Are We There Yet?, $8.2 million
4. Million Dollar Baby, $7.4 million
5. Pooh's Heffalump Movie, $5.8 million
6. The Wedding Date, $5.5 million
7. Hide and Seek, $5.4 million
8. The Aviator, $4.7 million
9. Sideways, $4.5 million
10. Meet the Fockers, $3.5 million

(Originally published Feb. 13, 2005 at 1:30 p.m. PT.)