Debuting in second place on Friday was Universal's horror flick The Unborn with an estimated $8.2M. Also opening stronger than expected, the PG-13 thriller should scare its way to $19-21M for the three-day period.

Fox's wedding comedy Bride Wars represented the third new film to post a powerful Friday gross taking in an estimated $8M. The Kate Hudson-Anne Hathaway pic slightly exceeded the $7.8M opening day take of last January's 27 Dresses. For the weekend period, Bride should finish in second place and collect $22-24M.

The marital drama Not Easily Broken posted a winning bow of its own grossing an estimated $2M from only 724 theaters on Friday. Look for Sony to take in $5-6M in three days for a sturdy average of more than $7,000. In fact, all four of these new films may end up averaging over $7,000 this weekend.

With all the new options filling up multiplexes, holdover films suffered large drops. Friday-to-Friday declines included 67% for Marley & Me, 73% for Bedtime Stories, 59% for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and 61% for Valkyrie.

The overall North American box office was incredibly robust with the top ten films grossing an estimated $41M on Friday which should lead to a three-day tally in the vicinity of $125M which would represent a strong 26% increase over a year ago when senior citizens also topped the charts with The Bucket List expanding wide at number one with $19.4M.

Be sure to check the UPDATED box office charts for the Top 20 Blockbusters of 2008 and Golden Globe nominees and grosses.

For a NEW review of The Unborn visit The Chief Report.

Check back on Sunday for the complete weekend box office report.