US box office top five

1. Monsters, Inc 2. Shallow Hal 3. The One 4. Domestic Disturbance 5. Heist

It earned $46.2m (�31.7m) over the weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

"The public obviously is buying this picture in a way that is record-breaking for animation and that bodes extremely well for our business," said Chuck Viane, Disney's head of distribution.

Love interest

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.

Opening in second place at the weekend was Shallow Hal, with Gwyneth Paltrow, which made $23.3m (�15.99m) in ticket sales.

Paltrow donned a fat suit to play the love interest of Hal, played by Jack Black, a womaniser who is hypnotised into falling for her.

The film was made by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the team behind Dumb and Dumber and There's Something about Mary.

Heist: Written and directed by David Mamet

Another new entry was Heist, a David Mamet-directed movie starring Gene Hackman as the leader of a band of gold thieves.

It opened at number five having taken $8m (�5.4m) at the box office behind The One, starring Jet Li and Domestic Disturbance starring John Travolta.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is set to open in the US next weekend and there are high expectations for its takings.

"It could be one of the biggest weekends of the year, maybe one of the biggest weekends of all time," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks the box office.

Advance tickets are selling briskly and there are no other major releases scheduled for the weekend.