DreamWorks Animation's comedy "Monsters vs. Aliens" won the box office race this weekend, generating some 58.2 million dollars in its North American debut and making Hollywood's best opening so far this year, according to preliminary estimates released on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
The animated movie, which tells the story of a ragtag group who fight with invading extraterrestrials to save the world, opened on an impressive 7,000 screens in the United States and Canada, including 2,000 digital 3-D or Imax theaters.
"Monsters vs. Aliens," a 150-million-dollar 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 dollars in estimated ticket sales.
Nicolas Cage's sci-fi thriller "Knowing," which was last week's box office leader, pulled in 14.7 million dollars, placing third in its second weekend in 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 dollars respectively over the three-day period. Both movies were in their second weekend in release.
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