'Cloverfield' breaks January record

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- The $41 million "Cloverfield" posted at the box office in its first three days in U.S. theaters wasn't just a monster number, it was a January record.

Directed by Matt Reeves and produced by J.J. Abrams, the monster movie broke the 11-year-old record for the biggest opening weekend gross for a film debuting in January, Paramount Pictures said.

"Cloverfield" also set an opening weekend record for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

"I think this movie defines what we want to do at Paramount," the studio's vice chairman, Rob Moore, said in a statement. "It is a movie that took a big creative risk. We really wanted to be in business with J.J. and his team, who came up with a really creative execution. And the marketing and distribution team were able to execute a great campaign."