Shrek Forever After

Shrek Forever After (heyuguys.co.uk)

He’s not made of iron, but our beloved ogre Shrek is -apparently- powerful enough to steal the box office’s top spot from Iron Man 2.

According to studio estimates on Sunday, the fourth installment of Shrek series from DreamWorks Animation took the top spot at the weekend box office in North America with $71.3 million during its first three days of release.

Unlike two previous installments, “Shrek 2″ which earned $108 million during its first weekend in 2004 and “Shrek The Third” (opened to $121.6 million in 2007), and despite its 3-D-ticket advantage, “Shrek Forever After” fell a little short of expectations, that was actually predicted will top -at least- $100 million.

But still, the movie’s income is pleasing. As Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DreamWorks Animation said, “We’re obviously happy to be the No. 1 movie, which we anticipated.” She added, “It’s a little lower than we anticipated but it’s still No. 4 among all animated openings of all time, behind the first two `Shrek’ sequels and `The Simpsons (Movie),’” which opened with $74 million in 2007.

With “Shrek Forever After” as the new champion, last week’s No. 1 movie, “Iron Man 2,” dropped to second place with $26.6 million. The superhero sequel from Paramount Pictures has now made over $251 million in three weeks, and an additional $268 million internationally.

Russell Crowe’s “Robin Hood” fell to No. 3 with $18.4 million in its second weekend. The 10-day total for the Universal Pictures release stands at $65.7 million. The foreign total rose to $125 million after a $30 million weekend. Followed by “Letters to Juliet” with $9.1 million in its second weekend.

The North American top-10 included two other new releases, they are; “MacGruber,” a comedy based on a “Saturday Night Live” skit came in at No. 6 with $4.1 million. Pundits had forecast an opening in the high single digits for the low-budget movie. The Universal Pictures comedy stars Will Forte as a bumbling version of the mulleted ’80s television character “MacGyver,” who was famous for his makeshift method of defusing threats.

The Bollywood movie “Kites” round up the top ten with about $1 million from 208 theaters, reportedly the widest release of any Hindi film to date and the first time such a film has cracked the top tier. The Las Vegas-set action romance was released by Reliance Big Pictures, a unit of Indian conglomerate Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Here’s a rundown of the weekend’s top-grossing films, per Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. “Shrek Forever After,” $71.3 million.
2. “Iron Man 2,” $26.6 million.
3. “Robin Hood,” $18.7 million.
4. “Letters to Juliet,” $9.1 million.
5. “Just Wright,” $4.2 million.
6. “MacGruber,” $4.1 million.
7. “Date Night,” $2.8 million.
8. “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” $2.3 million.
9. “How to Train Your Dragon,” $1.9 million.
10. “Kites,” $952,682

Congrats, Shrek! And please send our love to Princess Fiona!