‘Shrek’ Wins Third Straight Box Office Week
The summer of theatrical discontent continues, with “Shrek Forever After” trumping four new releases in its third week of exhibition. The 3D family film earned an estimated $25.3 million over the weekend.
“Get Him To The Greek” performed the best of the freshman crop, bringing in an estimated $17.4 million and landing in second place behind the big green ogre. Lionsgate’s gamble to hold “Killers” back from critics seems to have worked, with a third-place take of $16.1 million; the live-action / CG hybrid “Marmaduke” popped in sixth place with $11.3 million; sci-fi thriller “Splice” limped into eighth place with $7.4 million.
Both “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” and “Sex And The City 2″ had drops of over 50 percent from their opening weekend tallies. The silver lining is the budget for each film: it’ll take a lot longer for “Sands Of Time” to recoup the $200 million budget, while the second Carrie Bradshaw film outing will have made back its $100 million budget by the end of June in domestic receipts alone.
Here’s the weekend’s top ten performers, courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com:
| TW | LW | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Per-Screen Average |
Total Gross | Week # |
| 1 | 1 | Shrek Forever After | $25,300,000 | -41.6% | $5,768 | $183,043,000 | 3 |
| 2 | N | Get Him to the Greek | $17,423,000 | - | $6,460 | $17,423,000 | 1 |
| 3 | N | Killers | $16,100,000 | - | $5,631 | $16,100,000 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time |
$13,900,000 | -53.8% | $3,812 | $59,452,000 | 2 |
| 5 | 2 | Sex and the City 2 | $12,650,000 | -59.2% | $3,672 | $73,434,000 | 2 |
| 6 | N | Marmaduke | $11,300,000 | - | $3,517 | $11,300,000 | 1 |
| 7 | 4 | Iron Man 2 | $7,783,000 | -52.7% | $2,588 | $291,294,000 | 5 |
| 8 | N | Splice | $7,450,000 | - | $3,041 | $7,450,000 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | Robin Hood | $5,133,000 | -50.7% | $1,975 | $94,262,000 | 4 |
| 10 | 6 | Letters to Juliet | $3,000,000 | -48.6% | $1,529 | $43,300,000 | 4 |
