Shrek Forever After, the fourth and reportedly final film in the popular DreamWorks Animation series, arrives today in theaters to a big grab for the green.
The film, directed by Mike Mitchell, sees the famous ogre suffer in a midlife crisis that prompts him to accept an offer from Rumpelstiltskin to see what the world would be like with him. The film reunites the original cast of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese and Julie Andrews.
Shrek Forever After is the first film in the series to be made in stereo and will be rolling out wide in more than 4,300 cinemas. The film also is setting a record for an IMAX release, opening on 194 screens showing the film in the large format.
Reviews for the film have been mixed, earning a 47 percent positive ranking on RottenTomatoes.com as of Thursday afternoon, with only a 30 percent positive ranking from the site’s top critics.
DreamWorks Animation is downplaying expectations for the film’s opening weekend, which are pegged at a modest $80 million. The studio’s stock took a hit on Tuesday after the studio made its expectations known, but rebounded a bit on Wednesday.
The studio’s last film, the stereoscopic 3D How to Train Your Dragon, opened with a modest $43 million, but has since proven a consistent performer on its way to a domestic gross of more than $208 million. The film is still in release.
The sole new major challenger from a studio this week is the parody film MacGruber, based on the Saturday Night Live sketch and inspired by the 1980s TV series MacGyver. The Universal release is set to open in more than 2,500 cinemas.
Also holding over are the two-week champ Iron Man 2, as well as Ridley Scott’s new film, Robin Hood.
