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Los Angeles - Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are America's box-office sweethearts, but Justin Bieber is the valentine for teens.
The Valentine's Day weekend was a close one as Sandler and Aniston's romantic comedy, Just Go With It, debuted with $31m, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
That was just ahead of the concert documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, which opened a close second with $30.3m.
Sony's Just Go With It and Paramount's Never Say Never were close enough that the rankings could change when studios release final numbers on Monday.
The teen pop idol's flick exceeded industry expectations and nearly matched the $31.1m opening of 2008's Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, the record-holder for music-documentary debuts.
Lower revenues
Another love story, Disney's animated adventure Gnomeo & Juliet, opened solidly at No 3 with $25.5m. The movie features the voices of Emily Blunt and James McAvoy in a twist on Romeo and Juliet told with garden gnomes.
The weekend's other new wide release, Focus Features' ancient Roman saga The Eagle, was No 4 with $8.6m. The film stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell on a quest into the wilds of 2nd century Scotland.
Though Hollywood generally did strong business, revenues still were down compared to the previous year's for the 14th weekend in a row.
"We can't catch a break at the box office this year," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "Ordinarily, this would be a great weekend, but last year, the first quarter was really strong."
Just Go With It is a romantic farce featuring Sandler and Aniston as pals posing as a soon-to-be-divorced couple.
The movie maintained Sandler's steady record of box-office hits, pulling in the over-25 crowd, while teen girls flocked to Bieber's film, which gave Just Go for It a run for the No 1 spot.
