LOS ANGELES — “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” brought in $30.2 million of good fortune to debut in first place at the weekend box office.

The film based on the first three children’s books by Lemony Snicket, who is actually author Daniel Handler, knocked the star-driven sequel “Ocean’s Twelve” to second place, according to studio estimates released yesterday.

“Spanglish,” a new Sony film starring Tea Leoni, Adam Sandler, and Spanish actress Paz Vega, made its debut at third with an estimated weekend haul of $9 million.

Final figures were to be released today.

“Lemony Snicket” tells the story of a trio of orphans who try to defend themselves from greedy Count Olaf, played by Jim Carrey, who pursues the children by concealing himself as a variety of thinly veiled characters. Playing in wide release at 3,620 theaters, “Lemony Snicket” averaged $8,343 a cinema.

“Jim Carrey and the books are really the primary driving forces behind it and the marketing seems to have worked very well,” said the president of distribution for Paramount, Wayne Lewellen.

“The Aviator,” starring Leonardo Di-Caprio as eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, opened in 40 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and in resort towns — near ski resorts, in Hawaii, and in Palm Springs — in an attempt to catch vacationing Academy Awards voters, said the head of domestic distribution at Miramax, Mike Rudnitsky.