Jonas Brothers enjoy a boffo opening day

In case you were wondering whether the girls of America were voting for the Jonas Brothers only with their hearts and not their allowances, doubt no more. The boys’ third album, A Little Bit Longer, came out Tuesday, and based on projections being made from the first day of sales, it’s likely to have the third biggest opening week of the year. The group’s label is estimating that the album will come in with sales in the 675,000 to 725,000 range when final results are reported a week from now. Nielsen SoundScan partner Billboard magazine predicts that Longer "could surpass 600,000 and might start with as many as 725,000" in its first week.

That would give the Jonas sibs a shot at beating the second biggest opening week so far this year, which  belongs to Coldplay (721,000). Lil Wayne still tops on that list, with his million-selling first week unlikely to be topped any time in the near future.

The Jonas Brothers’ last album has sold just over 1.5 million so far. If Longer sells more than 700K out of the box, that means it’ll do almost half the total of the previous disc in a single week. Speaking of that last album, it’s selling like hotcakes—or hottie cakes. On the most recent chart, that catalog item moved up to No. 11, based purely, it would seem, on enthusiasm created by anticipation for the new release. Chances are very good that it will move into the top 10 in the week that includes debut sales for Longer. If that happens, it’ll mark the first time one act has had two albums in Billboard‘s top ten since ‘N Sync did it in early 1999.

Longer could have legs, too, if very positive reviews from some of the nation’s non-tween critics are any indication. You can read EW‘s critical endorsement here; Rolling Stone and Blender each gave Longer four stars.