‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ Takes #1 Spot- Box Office Results 3/27-29/09

A haunted house and a kidnapped wife were no match for a 50 ft. woman and a blob of blue goo. DreamWorks Animation's latest Monsters vs. Aliens destroyed competitors The Haunting in Connecticut and 12 Rounds by opening with $59.3 million. The overall movie-going business jumped 37% compared to last year at this time. This weekend was also the third-most attended ever for the month of March.

The 3-D marvel is the third-highest opening of March, behind 300 and Ice Age: The Meltdown, the eleventh when it comes to computer-animated movies. The kid's flick received generally good reviews (70% of critics recommended it according to survey site RottenTomatoes.com). While it did make a smashing opening at the box office, it still has a long way to go to make more than the 2001 Disney-Pixar animated alien movie Monsters Inc., which made just over $525 million worldwide. "3" seems to be Monsters' lucky number-the comedy was also the third-highest money-making IMAX debut behind The Dark Knight and Watchmen. But it set a new standard for family films, eliminating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and other DreamWorks hit Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa.

Coming in at #2 with $23 million was the teen horror/thriller The Haunting in Connecticut, landing in the Top Ten for supernatural horror flicks, but still landing behind the movie that it was constantly compared to-2005's The Amityville Horror. Like Amityville, Haunting in Connecticut was allegedly "based on true events", which audiences seem to get fright and joy out of. Other movies like Haunting that caught audience's attention were The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Boogeyman, and The Unborn (2009). According to Lionsgate's exit polling, 62% of the crowd was female and 44% were between 17-24 years old.

Last week's winner, the thriller Knowing, dropped 40% to $14.7 million. The drop was minimal compared to other films, including The Forgotten. The Paul Rudd-Jason Segel buddy comedy continues to do well, dropping a not-too-bad 29% to $12.7 million, making its 10-day run up to $37.1 million. The star's previous comedies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models had bigger second weekend falls. Speaking of falls, Tony Gilroy's Duplicity dropped 45% to $7.7 million.

America didn't forget Disney's family-friendly sci-fi Race to Witch Mountain, which stars Dwayne Johnson. Dropping 55% to $5.8 million, the movie's total comes to $53.5 million in 17 days so far. The remake has made more than the original, Escape to Witch Mountain, though. The ever-expanding Sunshine Cleaning had a satisfying weekend, going from 64 theaters to 167. The comedy that's being compared to the 2007 breakout hit Juno plans to expand even more to 500 theaters come Friday.

The John Cena action fling 12 Rounds bombed opening weekend, making a disappointing thud with $5.3 million. His similar movie, 2006's The Marine, opened better with $7.1 million.

The graphic novel adaptation Watchmen looks to be on its way out, this weekend at #8 making a mere $2.7 million. It dropped 60% since last weekend.

Here are the official box office results according to BoxOfficeMojo.com-