Dreamworks Animation may be Pixar’s whipping boy at the Oscar’s but that doesn’t mean the studio isn’t successful. Case in point: their latest feature, Monsters vs Aliens, easily won this weekend’s box office with an estimated $58.2 million big ones.
Monsters did have an advantage over the competition with 3-D enabled theaters able to charge a premium. Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg had wanted to see more theaters supporting 3-D by the time of its release which might have pushed Monsters past the $60.2 studio record set by Kung Fu Panda last year.
Elsewhere at the box office, The Haunting of Connecticut remake broke $23 million for an impressive horror debut. The other newcomer, 12 Rounds, fared far worse with a mere $5.3 million draw despite an action-heavy promotional campaign.
While the death of Natasha Richardson is a tragedy, the press Liam Neeson has received as a result has helped keep Taken alive weeks past its debut. In fact, Taken is already up for pre-order on Blu-ray Disc at Amazon.com despite its continued theatrical success.
The complete 10 ten list for the weekend reads as follows.
- 1. Monsters vs Aliens: $58.2m
- 2. The Haunting in Connecticut: $23.01m
- 3. Knowing: $14.705m
- 4. I Love You, Man: $12.6
- 5. Duplicity: $7.556m
- 6. Race to Witch Mountain: $5.637m
- 7. 12 Rounds: $5.3m
- 8. Watchmen: $2.755m
- 9. Taken: $2.7m
- 10. The Last House on the Left: $2.611m
Fast & Furious should clean up next weekend with nearly double the theaters as its only newcomer competition, Adventureland. Sunshine Cleaning will expand to 500 theaters giving it a shot at cracking the top 10.
