Monsters vs. Aliens tops North America weekend box office

DreamWorks Animation's comedy Monsters vs. Aliens won the box office race this weekend, generating some $58.2 million in its North American debut and making Hollywood's best opening so far this year, according to preliminary estimates released Sunday.

DreamWorks Animation's comedy Monsters vs. Aliens won the box office race this weekend, generating some $58.2 million in its North American debut and making Hollywood's best opening so far this year, according to preliminary estimates released Sunday.

HT Image

The animated movie, which tells the story of a ragtag group who fight with invading extra terrestrials to save the world, opened on an impressive 7,000 screens in the US and Canada, including 2,000 digital 3-D or Imax theaters.

Monsters vs. Aliens, a $150-million production, is the biggest gamble so far by Hollywood in the 3-D category, as major studios bet big on digital 3-D as a savior of the movie exhibition business.

The Haunting in Connecticut, another new release from Lionsgate, opened in second place with $23 million in estimated ticket sales.

Nicolas Cage's sci-fi thriller Knowing, which was last week's box office leader, pulled in $14.7 million, placing third in its second weekend of release.

Rounding out the top five movies in North America this weekend were Paramount comedy I Love You, Man and spy thriller Duplicity, with $12.6 million and $7.6 million respectively over the three-day period. Both movies were in their second weekend of release.