Box Office - 'Shrek' Outlasts Weak Competition

More strikeouts at the box office this summer, with no new releases even topping $20 million this weekend. In fact, only two of the four made more than $15 million. That opened the door for Shrek Forever After to win its third straight weekend, inching closer to $200 million in the US. The malaise has been here all summer; Iron Man 2 is the only tentpole movie in the first five weeks of the season that it a sure thing to triple its budget, counting all the global receipts. But even that movie isn't doing what it should have done. It'll make $300 million but may struggle to beat its predecessor in domestic sales. Even Shrek, a winner three times now, hasn't been that big a deal. This weekend's new movies weren't supposed to be enormous, so it's not a big surprise that Get Him to the Greek only managed $17.5 million and that Killers only started with $16 million. As generic as those numbers are, they're better than the whimpers from Marmaduke and Splice, which didn't even make $20 million combined...in over 5,500 theaters. Last week's flicks, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Sex and the City 2, both said goodbye to over 50% of their debut audiences, bad signs for their futures. Sex lost almost 60% from a week ago; Persia dumped 53%, according to the new estimates. But it isn't just the major event movies that have suffered this summer. MacGruber, just three weeks old, has already sacrificed over 90% of its theaters from its opening weekend. It made less than $100,000 this weekend and won't even make back its paltry $10 million budget during its US box office run. The Top Five:
1 - Shrek ($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 ($12.7 million)

Comments

[Vince]

Greek did pretty alright. It'll make back its budget at least in the states, it could eke out another $20+ million in foreign territories and it should clean up in DVD sales/rentals. Finally, Universal released something that's close to a hit, or at least a film that won't be hemorrhaging money.

Everything else though...wow. Apparently Killers cost $75 million to make? Seriously, Lionsgate can't open anything other than a Tyler Perry movie to save their lives.

[Get The Big Picture]

Greek is fine. Didn't cost what Funny People did, so that helps. I hadn't heard that figure for Killers, but I don't think LGF is going to be able to reclaim that.