BBC News Online: Entertainment: Film

Monster hit at box office

Monsters, Inc: Stars John Goodman and Billy Crystal

The film, which is about a monster factory that collects children's screams, had the best ever North American opening for an animated film and the sixth-best opening of all time.

It earned $63.5m (£43.6m) over the weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Monsters, Inc features the voices of John Goodman as the gorilla-like Sully and Billy Crystal as his pal Mike Wazowski, an eyeball with arms and legs.

The Disney organisation was delighted with the film's strong debut.

Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane said: "It's just fabulous.

"We knew it was good, but breaking records - you very seldom expect that."

Second place went to another new film, Jet Li's latest action vehicle The One, which brought in $20m (£13.7m).

And John Travolta's new film, Domestic Disturbance, came in at number three with a box office total of $14.5m (£9.9m).

The weekend's business saw receipts for the top 12 movies up nearly 90% over the previous weekend - and 44% up on the same weekend last year.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office analysts Exhibitor Relations, said: "In the light of the tragedy of September 11, the box office has just been incredible.

"People want an escape - we're on record pace for the year."

One film which performed better than expected was the French-language romance Amelie, a big hit in Europe.

The film was on only shown three screens - two in New York and one in Los Angeles - but took a total of $140,000 (£96,000).

The release of Monsters, Inc was moved to early November to avoid clashing with the Harry Potter film - which hits screens the weekend the before Thanksgiving holiday.