It was good news and bad news for Shrek Forever After, the fourth film in the Shrek franchise: The good news is the film handily topped the weekend box office with an estimated $71.2 million gross. The bad news is it fall far short when compared to the openings of the last couple of Shrek movies.
The king of the franchise for opening weekends is Shrek the Third, which grossed $121.7 million in 2007, followed by Shrek 2‘s $108 million opening in 2004. The original Shrek opened with $42 million in 2001.
These results have been hotly debated, with some box office watchers suggesting the series is past its prime, while others suggesting the film may have the kind of legs that have been seen with other stereroscopic 3D films, including DreamWorks’ own How to Train Your Dragon.
Speaking of which, Dragon earned $1.8 million for the weekend, bringing its domestic total to just under $211 million. With $221 million banked overseas, the film’s worldwide gross stands at $432 million.
The No. 2 slot this weekend went to the still-strong Iron Man 2, which took in $26.6 million for a domestic take of $251 million. Its worldwide take now totals $506 million. Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe collaboration Robin Hood was in third place with $18.7 million for a $66 million domestic total. Overseas, the merry men have racked up $125 million for a $191 million total.
Newcomer MacGruber, based on a Saturday Night Live sketch, opened in sixth place with $4.1 million.
Further down the charts sees the following films still adding to their totals: Alice in Wonderland added $480,000 as its worldwide gross of $996 million edges toward the billion-dollar mark; Avatar made $170,000 this weekend, a minor amount compared to its worldwide record total of $2.7 billion.
Indie animated film Secret of the Kells earned $18,000 this weekend at 20 theaters, bringing its domestic gross to $491,000.
