Monsters University Still on Top of Box Office

Beasts continued to stomp throughout the nation's movie theaters this past weekend. Once again, Monsters University from Disney unit Pixar was the top-grossing film, taking in a little more than $46 million according to data compiled by Box Office Mojo. Now in its second week of release, the film (a prequel to Pixar's 2001 hit Monsters) has reaped roughly $171 million to date.

No. 2 for the weekend was a fresh release, the odd couple police comedy The Heat. It raked in an estimated $40 million, which is also the best opening for a film featuring co-star Sandra Bullock. The movie is distributed by 21st Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) (Nasdaq: FOXA) subsidiary Twentieth Century Fox.

Third place belonged to big-budget zombie slaughter-fest World War Z. The film continued to kill in its second weekend in theaters, grossing just under $30 million. Thus far, it has sold approximately $124 million in tickets. It's distributed by Viacom's Paramount.

A disappointing performer was White House Down, the second of two movies released this year to feature the title building in peril. It debuted to almost $26 million in gross receipts over the weekend, which fell short of the $30 million-plus opening performance of the similarly themed Olympus Has Fallen released in March. Of the two, White House Down has the higher production budget by far. It cost roughly $150 million to make, in contrast to its rival's $70 million.

White House Down is distributed by Sony .

The article Monsters University Still on Top of Box Office originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Disney. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.