This weekend's box office was dominated by the animated film "Monsters vs. Aliens," a cartoon featured old-school creatures from 1950s flicks who come together to take on invading extraterrestrials.

The film topped the weekend box office, raking in $58.2 million to place it at the #1 spot for the 3-D enabled film

The ticket sales were enough to make it the biggest debut of 2009 so far, beating out the first weekend numbers for previous holder "Watchmen," which earned $55.2 million in early March.

In at #2 is Liongate's ghost story, "The Haunting in Connecticut," which fared well, grossing $23 million in ticket sales, which would normally land a film at the top spot. The film fave lead actress Virginia Madsen the best debut of her career thus far.

Last week's top film, "Knowing" starring Nicholas Cage, slipped to #3 this weekend, recording a 40% drop to earn $14.7 million.

According to the Associated Press, the big opening weekend for "Monsters vs. Aliens" help boost revenue for Hollywood, which has been declining the past couple weekends.

Numbers for other films this week is as follows:

"I Love You, Man" landed at #4, grossing $12.6 mil; and "Duplicity" took a 46% drop off from last week's debut, raking in $7.6 mil for the #5 spot.

The weekend's other big new film was the WWE-produced action thriller "12 Rounds," starring wrestling star John Cena. Despite the hype, the it grossed just $5.3 million to put it at #7.

The AP reports that this week, films brought in $148 million, up 39% from the same weekend a year ago when the film "21" was its big opener.