Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar Animation Studios' G rated computer animated feature Monsters, Inc. held on to second place in its fourth week with a still colorful ESTIMATED $33.1 million at 3,649 theaters (+188 theaters; $9,064 per theater). Its cume is approximately $192.8 million, heading for $275-300 million in domestic theaters. (Monsters' three-day gross for the Friday-Sunday weekend was an ESTIMATED $24.5 million.)
Directed by Pete Docter, it was co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman and written by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson.
Universal and Beacon Pictures' opening of the R rated espionage thriller Spy Game finished third with a solid ESTIMATED $30.53 million at 2,770 theaters ($11,023 per theater). (Spy's three-day gross for the Friday-Sunday weekend was an ESTIMATED $21.6 million.)
Directed by Tony Scott and produced by Douglas Wick and Marc Abraham, it stars Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.
"It's not surprising the picture performed extraordinarily well in a marketplace where family film dominates," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said Sunday morning. "Thanksgiving has traditionally for the past 10 years offered an incredible selection of family film. We decided this year to counter program with a film that was truly made for adults."
Universal succeeded in attracting the adult audience it was after. "Knowing that over two-thirds of the audience was over the age of 30 and with the success of this opening weekend, our strategy worked," Rocco said.
The film's Wednesday opening, Rocco explained, "afforded us an opportunity to, in effect, sneak the film and start generating good word of mouth, which we knew would be the case (based on excellent research screenings)."