Monsters Vs. Aliens has become the fourth biggest animated film debut in Russia after Paramount and DreamWorks Animation executives opted to open the film in the former Soviet Union during a national school holiday.
Figures are yet to be confirmed, but the film has scored $6.2 million (£4.4 million) since it was launched in 644 locations last week (20Mar09).
Even before the movie, in which Witherspoon voices the character of a giant woman, is released in America, it has scored seventh place at the international box office for the weekend ending 22 March (09).
Slumdog Millionaire is the international number one movie.
Monsters Vs. Aliens is expected to debut at the top of the box office in America this weekend (29Mar09), displacing Nicolas Cage's action movie Knowing, which claimed the top spot on Sunday (22Mar09) with an opening-weekend take of $24.8 million (£17.7 million).