New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Finishing third is Shrek Forever After, ruler of the box office the last three weekends by default (no one else showed up). Shrek 4 earned another $15.8 million, and somehow continues its strong run with a drop of only 38%. That "somehow" is called 3D, as Shrek Forever After has been able to enjoy a month long run with zero competition in the 3D market, holding the big auditoriums, and giving folks a chance to recycle a sexy pair of shades. I'm like a kid waiting for the candy store to open as I wait to see Shrek's plunge next weekend, when Pixar's Toy Story 3 steals all those 3D cinemas. Will the drop be 60%? More? It could be – How to Train Your Dragon dipped 62% when Shrek 4 came on the scene. Shrek Forever After crossed the $200 million mark on Saturday, its 23rd day of release. The first Shrek took 33 days to hit that mark, Shrek 2 took 11 days, and Shrek 3 took ten days. With a running total of $210 million domestic, Shrek Forever After will be a winner for Paramount and DreamWorks, but not the sort of winner that the first three films in this series were.

Fourth goes to Get Him to the Greek, last weekend's opener from producer Judd Apatow. Greek earned $10.1 million and dropped an expected 43%. Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of Apatow's Forgetting Sarah Marshall (the Russell Brand character is the same in both films), and it's amazing how the two films are performing so similarly. Sarah Marshall, like Greek, opened to $17 million. In its second weekend, Sarah Marshall dipped 38% to $11 million. Sarah finished with about $63 million against a budget of $30 million. Greek cost $10 million more, and will likely finish with a slightly smaller amount. So far, Get Him to the Greek has earned $36.5 million.

Fifth goes to Killers, the expensive Lionsgate production starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. I thought Killers would go further into the sink than it did, but it managed to keep its nose above a 50% plunge. Killers earned $8.2 million and was off 48%. The dip should be more here, as this one was 13% fresh at RottenTomatoes. The $75 million production now has a running total of $30.7 million.

Marmaduke manages to hold on to sixth spot this weekend, despite dropping $5 million off its opening weekend. The soft opener ($11.6 million) from Fox held about the same as the other openers this weekend as it fell 48%, earning $6 million. Marmaduke needed a better hold if its was going to recoup its $50 million production budget (or more) stateside. Currently, it has a total of $22.3 million after ten days of release.

Prince of Persia drops to seventh this weekend, as the big budget Disney flick struggles domestically, but is winning overseas. Prince earned another $6.6 million this weekend, and dipped a severe 53%. It now appears that Prince of Persia will not earn $100 million stateside, but has already taken in over $160 million overseas, so while we likely won't be seeing a sequel, Disney won't lose their shirt on this one. Give it $72.3 million domestically so far.

Continued:       1       2       3       4