Shrek Three-peat, ‘Greek’ Solid, ‘Splice’ Bombs

Published by Jeff Leins on June 6, 2010

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.

In 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!

Even worse was Warner Bros’ Splice with $7.4 million, which is a shame considering a mainstream studio took a chance on the niche sci-fi/horror indie out of Sundance.

Sandwiched in between the two underperformers was Paramount’s Iron Man 2.  With a $291 million total, the sequel has nearly caught the original stateside.  Globally, it passed the first Sunday.

Also, I wanted to point out MacGruber was yanked from nearly all of its theaters (only 117 remaining), so it plummeted 94% to a $94,000 weekend and an abysmal $8.5 million.

3-Day U.S. Weekend Estimates (June 4-6):
1. Shrek Forever After  $25.3 million
2. Get Him to the Greek  $17.4 million
3. Killers  $16.1 million
4. Prince of Persia  $13.9 million
5. Sex and the City 2  $12.7 million
6. Marmaduke  $11.3 million
7. Iron Man 2  $7.8 million
8. Splice  $7.4 million
9. Robin Hood  $5.1 million
10. Letters to Juliet  $3 million