Despite a foursome of movies opening wide this weekend targeting various demographics, DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After grabbed its third consecutive victory.
The fourth and final fantasy tale picked up another $25.3 million atop the slumping box office, boosting its total to $183 million. Positive word-of-mouth and terrible family film competition is pushing this sequel along, but it’s sure to take a dive when Toy Story 3 hits in less than two weeks.
The closest any of them came to dethroning Shrek was Universal’s R-rated, quasi-spin-off Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. Its $17.4 million was aligned solidly with expectations and good enough for second.
Lionsgate’s Killers started with a weak $16.1 million, even after the controversy over Ashton Kutcher “pirating” the first 10 minutes. Apparently people don’t know a marketing stunt when they see one because his choice of words sparked plenty of headlines during a slow news week. (There’s a lot of that going around.) The studio didn’t screen the romantic comedy for critics, but it still took a beating once reviewers had a look at it (15% on RottenTomatoes). I get that Lionsgate wanted to protect their investment by hiding it, but that doesn’t explain why someone spent $75M on a Kutcher and Katherine Heigl movie.
Disney’s Prince of Persia and New Line’s Sex and the City 2 both dropped 50+ percent, but the fall is especially harsh on the former that will definitely struggle to reach $100M, or half its budget, in the States. I guess we won’t be seeing more Persian parkour.
Get Him to the GreekIn sixth, where it belongs, was Fox’s Marmaduke. The live-action/CGI hybrid made just $11.3 million. That’ll teach ‘em. Bad Fox, bad! Go lay down!
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