Hidden Figures’ estimated $20.45m in its fourth week on release was enough to comfortably see off La La Land, which took $14.5m for second place in its sixth week.
Monster Trucks’ failure to dent the box office was widely anticipated, after reports emerged that studio Paramount were expecting to lose $115m on the project.
Outdoing both was little-heralded horror film The Bye Bye Man, which managed to land in fifth place with $13.38m.
Space-race drama Hidden Figures – about a group of black female mathematicians who were instrumental in getting the Apollo missions off the ground – has retained its position at the top of the US box office as a slew of more obviously commercially targeted films failed to score with audiences.