‘Monsters University’ Tops Box Office, Beats Zombie Movie ‘World War Z’

‘Monsters University’ became a box-office winner on its opening weekend, raking in a total of $82 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates released Sunday and cited by Associated Press.

'Monsters University' is the fourteenth consecutive film to open in first place for Pixar Animation Studios, a unit of The Walt Disney Company, according to AP.

"It definitely exceeded our expectations," Dave Hollis, executive vice-president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios, told Reuters. "The first film was so beloved and set such a high bar so we're ecstatic."

The latest blockbuster out of Pixar, a prequel to the 2001 hit ‘Monsters Inc.,’ had stiff competition from the Brad Pitt-starring zombie movie ‘World War Z,’ which hauled in $66 million, and ‘Man of Steel,’ which sold tickets worth $41.2 million, over the weekend.

‘Monsters University,’ featuring the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman, chronicles the lives of two monsters who fail their college’s scare program. It also tells the story of how these two monsters -- Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan -- become the best of friends.

Rotten Tomatoes, the movie review aggregator, gave the film a rating of 6.7 on 10.

Meanwhile, ‘World War Z,’ which came in second over the weekend, also surprised some in the business. "I don't think there's a person on the planet who thought this would open at $66 million," Paramount's president of distribution, Don Harris, told Reuters. "These are pretty heady numbers."

"We're in really good shape," he added.