The 3-D animated event Monsters vs. Aliens opened in first place, as expected, with a super-solid $58.2 million gross, according to Sunday’s estimates from Media by Numbers.
Assuming that early figure holds, DreamWorks Animation’s movie garnered the year’s biggest debut so far, besting Watchmen‘s $55.2 mil. It also got, of course, the top premiere of 2009 among 3-D movies like My Bloody Valentine 3-D and Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.
The family film achieved said success by screening in a variety of fashions — in regular theaters, on IMAX screens, in 2-D, and in 3-D. In fact, less than a third of its showings were in 3-D, but it still earned a whopping 56 percent of its money (about $32.6 mil) from those 3-D locations, where tickets were more expensive. An additional nine percent of its total (about $5.2 mil) came from 143 higher-priced IMAX shows. Overall, Monsters vs. Aliens played in 4,104 theaters and averaged a stellar $14,181 per. The movie also drew a nice A- CinemaScore review from an audience that was 62 percent under the age of 25. Yeah, it’ll be sticking around for several weeks to come.
Meanwhile, The Haunting in Connecticut (No. 2) fared surprisingly well in its opening, grossing $23 mil — a total that would ordinarily sew up a win. Indeed, had Monsters vs. Aliens not also come out this weekend, The Haunting in Connecticut‘s big bow would be an even bigger story (guess all those strange and banal posters and trailers served it well!). Even with a weak B- CinemaScore grade from a crowd that was 58 percent female, the fact-based horror flick gave Virginia Madsen the best premiere — by far — of her career as a lead actor.
Reigning champ Knowing (No. 3), starring Nicolas Cage, held on well during its second weekend, dropping just 40 percent to earn $14.7 mil. I Love You, Man (No. 4) stayed even stronger, declining a mere 29 percent to gross $12.6 mil. Duplicity was off 46 percent from its first-weekend figure, banking $7.6 mil at No. 5. And this weekend’s other big new release, the WWE-produced action thriller 12 Rounds (No. 7), starring John Cena, got pinned with only $5.3 mil.
Overall, the box office was up more than 39 percent from the same frame a year ago, when 21 was the big opener. To be sure, 2009′s box office winning streak continues.
More Box Office News:
Box Office Preview: Monsters vs. Aliens will scare up big bucks this weekend
Knowing cruises to weekend victory
Race to Witch Mountain casts a spell at No. 1
Watchmen wins the weekend with $55.7 mil
Madea tops Jonas Brothers for a second box office win
EW.com’s Box Office Chart
The 3D visuals are terrific in Monsters Vs. Aliens, often even jaw dropping, they definitely elevate this movie to a higher level.
Monsters was boring.
I am surprised that Haunting made that much.
The movie was rather generic and middle of the road imho. Granted, the 3D effects were a visual marvel which is a plus. Then again, think about it, it doesn’t say much if the movie “needed” the 3D effects to make it watchable. The 2D Incredibles and Monsters Inc are much better imho.
Didn’t Lisa S. hate this movie? It once again shows how out of touch she is with mainstream America.
the gross of “haunting” was only surprising to those who didn’t pay attention to the genius marketing
@ Jeff W
Maybe mainstream America just doesn’t have any standards
For a detailed write up of this weekend’s box office, try Mendelson’s Memos.
http://scottalanmendelson.blogspot.com/2009/03/scott-mendelsons-mendelsons-memos.html
If being “in touch with mainstream America” means repeat viewings of “Knowing” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” I hope to stay out of the mainstream forever.
I not a big fan of movies like The Haunting in Connecticut but I absolutely love Kyle Gallner and will watch anything he does so I went and saw on Saturday with some friends. Kyle was great as always but I have to say the movie was a lot better than I, or my friends, expected.
@DDK713 – Henry Selick had a great comment about how the new 3D movies need to avoid being too gimmicky: http://budurl.com/ro3d
I’m going to have to wait until next weekend to see Monsters vs. Aliens and make my own judgment on whether or not it does that.
Kah, I agree that the masses are asses, but Lisa S. has demonstrated a pattern of hating anything from the sci-fi/monster movie genre, she’s very biased/predictable.
To Rich:
So true. Besides, when most of mainstream America who’d rather watch American Idol or Dancing with the Stars than thought provoking fare like BSG and Lost, being out of touch is not such a bad thing. Also, plenty of reviewers (Roger Ebert included) criticized Monsters vs. Aliens for many of the same reasons Lisa S. did, so I don’t think her comments are unwarranted.
Hopefully the studios aren’t just using the 3D vehicle to take mediocre films from box office blah to success. It would be nice to see the technology in something worth goin to see…
I loved Monsters, the fantastic voice cast made all the characters lovable. I hope there will be further adventures, for these endearing monsters. As for the 3D I saw it on Imax, and I thought it was totally amazing and so beautifully done. Worth every penny to go to the movies and see something that every member of the family can enjoy for once!