Monsterous opening for "Monsters" and "Haunting", while "12 Rounds" down for the count

Both "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "The Haunting In Connecticut" had forceful debuts on Friday, with "Monsters" taking the #1 spot on Friday with nearly $17 million and "Haunting" at #2 with a little over $9.5 million.

"Monsters" opening day came in shy of DreamWorks Animation's previous picture, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa", which opened at $17.6 million, and doing better than last March's "Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who" witch started at a little over $13 million.

"Haunting" opened better than similar genre movies "The Unborn (2009)" and "Boogeyman", and, in terms of attendance, was only slightly behind "The Amityville Horror (2005)".

The other new flick opening this weekend, "12 Rounds", fell flat at the box office, opening to a meager $1.6 million. "12 Rounds" did less of an opening day than John Cena's previous vehicle, "The Marine", which did nearly $2.5 million on its opening day.

Hanging on strong for a second week were "Knowing" with a little over $4.5 million on Friday, "I Love You Man" with a little under $4 million, and "Duplicity" bringing in a little over $2 million.

My predictions for the top 10 movies for this weekend:

1. Monsters Vs. Aliens
2. The Haunting in Connecticut
3. Knowing
4. I Love You, Man
5. Duplicity
6. 12 Rounds
7. Race to Witch Mountain
8. Watchmen
9. Taken
10. The Last House on the Left