Nonetheless, Monsters is an unqualified success story for Disney/Pixar with nearly $157 million already under its box office belt. It went into the record books this weekend as the fastest animated film ever to hit $150 million, doing so in 17 days compared to the 18 days it took DreamWorks' blockbuster Shrek to get there. With the holiday season on its way now, Monsters is heading for a domestic theatrical gross of $225 million or more.
Driven by Harry and Monsters, which together took in about $116.5 million, key films grossed a lively total of about $161 million, up 7.4 percent from last year's $149.9 million when Universal's opening of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas dominated the marketplace.
This year's relatively modest percentage increase in the face of Harry's record-setting launch reflects the fact that last year there were stronger showings for the third, fourth and fifth ranking films on the chart, all of which did double digit ticket sales. This year's fourth and fifth films were not nearly as successful.
THE TOP TEN
Warner Bros.' launch of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone materialized in first place with a magical ESTIMATED $93.52 million at 3,672 theaters ($25,467 per theater).
Directed by Chris Columbus, Harry stars Daniel Radcliffe in its title role.
Harry's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide or limited release this weekend.
"Harry is the man," Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning.
"We were up a little more on Friday [than we thought yesterday] -- $31.635 million for Friday," Fellman noted. "$32.880 million for Saturday. And I'm projecting $29 million for Sunday."
Focusing on the record books, he said, "Obviously, we've broken every single record of mankind. The principal ones are -- It's the largest non-holiday three day weekend, which (had been) Planet of the Apes at $68.5 million. It's the largest three consecutive days ever, which belonged to Jurassic Park [The Lost World: Jurassic Park], which had a Memorial Day Sunday [and did] $72.1 million. The largest four days of all time was the same movie, which was $90.1 million.