Borat opened much like another recent runaway smash that was the most talked about film in the land - Michael Moore's 2004 doc Fahrenheit 9/11. That film bowed in 868 theaters and grossed a spectacular $8.1M in its first day for a scorching $9,378 average. It went on to capture $23.9M over its opening weekend in June of that year making it a surprise number one hit.

With all its hype plus its built-in fan base, the Sacha Baron Cohen film should have attracted a large part of its opening weekend turnout on Friday. But good word-of-mouth may help sustain it over the weekend. For the three-day period, Borat might find itself with a sensational $22-25M allowing it to become the surprise box office champion.

Debuting far behind in second place was the holiday picture The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause with an estimated $5.4M in its opening day. The take was down 28% from the $7.5M first-day gross of The Santa Clause 2 which arrived on the first weekend of November four years ago. For this weekend, look for Clause 3 to take in about $18-21M.

Splitting the family crowd was the animated comedy Flushed Away with an estimated $4.9M in its first day of release. The Paramount title will continue to compete for the same audience as Clause over the opening weekend and could find itself with $16-19M by the end of the frame.

Among holdovers, Friday-to-Friday declines were 63% for Saw III, 17% for The Departed, and 20% for The Prestige.

The top ten films on Friday grossed $33.2M, down 9% from a year ago when Chicken Little opened atop the box office with $10.7M on its way to a weekend total of $40M.