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The huge weekend was driven by Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar's Monsters launch and also by a $20 million second place kickoff for Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures' The One, marking the biggest opening ever for a film with Jet Li in a starring role.

Ticket sales for key films reached a summer-like total of over $143 million with business up nearly 80 percent over the previous weekend's $79.8 million.

Insiders said with the marketplace doing so well overall, Hollywood has succeeded in extending the lucrative holiday moviegoing season into the first weekend of November. This release pattern is now virtually certain to be repeated in the future.

The weekend's third high-profile wide opening, Paramount's Domestic Disturbance starring John Travolta, finished third with $14.5 million, making less of a disturbance than insiders had anticipated. Based on its strong showing on Hollywood's advance radar screen, Disturbance was expected to land in second place with $15-20 million.

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Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar Animation Studios' G rated animated feature Monsters Inc. easily captured first place with blockbuster ticket sales of an ESTIMATED $63.5 million at 3,237 theaters ($19,600 per theater).

Monster's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.

Directed by Pete Docter, it was co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman and written by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson.

Monsters' opening compares very favorably to the Thanksgiving 1999 launch for Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 2, which grossed $57.4 million for the three day portion (Friday-Sunday) of its five day period, benefiting from the fact that it was a holiday weekend. TS2 went on to gross $245.8 million in domestic theaters.

"It's the largest animated (opening) in history," Buena Vista Distribution president Chuck Viane said Sunday morning. "It not only sets up the Christmas season, but it (shows what really can be done in) that first weekend of November where we've seen $40 million grosses happen time and time again. Now we've just brought this level to an unbelievable plateau."

What accounts for Monsters' monster numbers? "The bottom line is-it's all about a great story," Viane explained. "There's no question those guys made a great movie. Oren (Aviv, president of Buena Vista Pictures Marketing) and his team made the marketing work. Obviously, we were in all the right locations. You can't do this (kind of blockbuster business) unless you've got seats."

The film's solid success shows, he added, that "If the product's there, the audience is there."

Where is it likely to wind up domestically? "I don't know," Viane replied. "The playability (is there). We saw the CinemaScores, which (were) four A-pluses and two A's, which means the audience loves it. Obviously, there's strong competition to fight our way through the Christmas holidays, but I think the playability and the fact that that it's such a great story (will be very helpful). We're going to have so much in the bank before we face real head to head competition that who knows where it goes?"

Asked about the opening weekend audience, Viane said, "It's so unusual. We started with shows as early as 9:30 a.m. at the El Capitan (Theater in Hollywood) and at 11:30 at night we had 539 people at (that late night) show. Now you know that that's not families. Obviously, it's predominantly kids, but we have played through every teenage range, every 20-30-and-40 range, adult ranges. It's everybody. You can't do this kind of number unless you're playing to everybody."