Monster movie "Cloverfield" has shattered the studio's box-office estimates by raking in $18.25 million for its opening day on Friday.

The number puts it on course to earn just over $50 million for the long weekend, easily shattering the best January opening record held by "Star Wars: Special Edition" with $35.9 million, and the Martin Luther King holiday weekend record which "Black Hawk Down" had with $33.6 million.

Another wide release this week was rom-com "27 Dresses" which also landed a much higher than expected $8.7 million on Friday and looks set to bank $30 million by the holiday weekend's end. Not faring as well was Diane Keaton/Queen Latifah caper comedy "Mad Money" with $2.3 million on Friday, whilst the limited release of Woody Allen's new thriller "Cassandra's Dream" with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor looks set to bomb with a sub-$4,000 per screen average expected by holiday weekend's end.

Meanwhile at the premiere of "Cloverfield" earlier in the week, director Matt Reeves was asked by Bloody Disgusting about the rumors that a sequel is already being planned. Reeves responded "Only time will tell. While we were on set making the film we talked about the possibilities and directions of how a sequel can go. The fun of this movie was that it might not have been the only movie being made that night, there might be another movie! In today's day and age of people filming their lives on their iphones and handy cams, uploading it to youtube...That was kind of exciting thinking about that."