Fast & Furious reunited the original cast of 2001's surprise smash The Fast and the Furious generating excitement among fans that had to settle for actors and directors being swapped out over the last two films in the series. The new Vin Diesel-Paul Walker outing surged to the biggest opening day of the year beating Watchmen's $24.5M and its three-day tally is sure to become tops in 2009 outdistancing the $59.3M of last weekend's Monsters vs. Aliens. Even with an expected dip in ticket sales on Saturday, Fast & Furious could end the frame with a stunning $70-75M, possibly making it the largest debut of any film since The Dark Knight.

Monsters got off to a good start in its second weekend grossing an estimated $8.8M on Friday, off 45%. Paramount should find itself with $33-37M boosting the ten-day cume past $105M.

The weekend's only other new release was Miramax's theme park comedy Adventureland which debuted with an estimated $2.2M in its first day of play. A weekend take of $6-7M seems likely.

Among holdovers, Friday-to-Friday declines were 41% for Knowing, only 31% for I Love You, Man, and 62% for The Haunting in Conncticut.

Check back on Sunday for the complete weekend box office report.