Box Office Results Week 13

Source: IMDbPro.com

In a showdown between Monsters vs. Aliens, the clear winner was DreamWorks Animation. The studio’s 3-D sci-fi comedy took in an estimated $58.2 million in its debut, the biggest opening for a movie in 2009 so far as last week’s top earner, Nic Cage’s doomsday action film Knowing, dropped to third with $14.7 million behind The Haunting in Connecticut.

Lionsgate’s haunted house thriller starring Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner and something weird flying out of a kids’ mouth scared up an impressive $23 million in its premiere.

Overall, this week’s top films surpassed ticket sales from the same time last year by a monstrous 42%. Contributing to this figure in a very insignificant way was the WWE action thriller 12 Rounds featuring former pro wrestling champ John Cena, which opened in the seventh spot with $5.3 million.

There was also a belated milestone of sorts this weekend for Watchmen; the superhero epic passed the $100 million mark (finally), adding $2.8 million to its $103 million cumulative gross.

Sunshine Cleaning cleaned up in its second week of limited release, earning $1.34 million and barely missing out on landing a spot in the top ten, while fellow indie film Sin Nombre continued to do well in its limited run. The border-crossing drama averaged $11,419 in just six (count ‘em, seis) theaters to bring its two-week total to $184,207.

The newly released religious doc The Cross carried away $300,000 in its limited debut as the Sarah Jessica Parker-produced indie drama Spinning Into Butter spun out with $5,500 in its handful of theaters.

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