Monsters vs. Aliens was the big winner this weekend, handily beating the competition and nudging out Watchmen for most lucrative opening of the year so far. With a $58 million start the movie has a ways to go to top Dreamwork's typical animated feature budget of $150 million, but with limited new competition next weekend it's likely to enjoy solid audience turn out then as well.

Horror diversion The Haunting in Connecticut tanked with critics but drew in $23 million from audiences to take second. That's a better sum that Lionsgate usually enjoys but a solid $10 million less than the original Haunting opened with in 1999. OK, so the two movies really don't have anything to do with each other besides Virginia Madsen, but it's worth noting that horror/thrillers about man eating houses do better than ones supposedly based on true stories.

Wrestling crossover-wannabe John Cena's latest acting debacle 12 Rounds didn't fare so well. with less than $6 million the movie debuted in seventh place.

Watchmen continues its rapid descent. Dropping all the way to eighth place it saw only $2.7 million on its third weekend out. Theaters saw the empty seats and reacted as well. The movie disappeared from almost half the theaters it enjoyed just last weekend. Whether or not the $163 million the film has earned is enough to cover all of WB's costs is yet to be seen, but fans who made it such an unusual one weekend success may just give the film the boost it needs when the DVDs roll out.

1. Monsters Vs. Aliens * $58,200,000   -   Total: $58,200,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 4,104

2. The Haunting in Connecticut * $23,010,000   -   Total: $23,010,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 2,732

3. Knowing $14,705,000   -   Total: $46,220,000 LW: 1     WR: 2     THTRS: 3,337

4. I Love You, Man $12,600,000   -   Total: $37,007,000 LW: 2     WR: 2     THTRS: 2,717

5. Duplicity $7,556,000   -   Total: $25,639,000 LW: 3     WR: 2     THTRS: 2,579

6. Race to Witch Mountain $5,637,000   -   Total: $53,295,000 LW: 4     WR: 3     THTRS: 3,268

7. 12 Rounds * $5,300,000   -   Total: $5,300,000 LW: N     WR: 1     THTRS: 2,331

8. Watchmen $2,755,000   -   Total: $103,296,000 LW: 5     WR: 4     THTRS: 2,010

9. Taken $2,700,000   -   Total: $137,074,000 LW: 7     WR: 9     THTRS: 1,961

10. The Last House on the Left (2009) $2,611,000   -   Total: $28,459,000 LW: 6     WR: 3     THTRS: 2,251