After having the first two months of 2012 largely led by Oscar-hungry holdovers, the specialty market saw a new crop of films finally take over. According to estimates provided by Rentrak earlier today, “Friends With Kids,” “Footnote,” “Salmon Fishing in Yemen” and “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” all found very strong debuts this weekend.

Here’s the rundown:

“Friends With Kids” (Roadside Attractions)
While not exactly “Bridesmaids” money, Roadside Attractions saw a very promising opening from Jennifer Westfeldt’s romantic comedy “Friends With Kids.” Starring a large portion of the “Bridesmaids” cast (Jon Hamm, Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Chris O’Dowd), as well as Adam Scott, Megan Fox, Ed Burns and Westfeldt herself, the Toronto Film Festival pickup took in $2,169,374 from an aggressive 374 screens. That made for a very respectable $5,801 per-theater-average ahead of an expansion to 600 screens next weekend.

“We had a great opening on Jennifer Westfeldt’s very smart comedy ‘Friends With Kids,'” Roadside Attractions’ Howard Cohen said. “Our starry cast did a firestorm of press and electronic outlets and our exits show we got a great female as well as date crowd very evenly spread from 18 – 60.”