While Dreamworks Animation has had other successes, Shrek has always been the franchise that’s stood head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to box office. As a result, it’s little surprise the fourth film in the big ogre series, Shrek Forever After, has topped the US box office in its first weekend – the real question has always been how big would it open?
$71 million in its first three days certainly isn’t a bad haul by most standards, but is likely to be seen as a bit of a disappointment compared to the record hauls the last two Shrek movie took when they opened. Both of the previous Shrek films opened to over $100 million, with Shrek The Third $121 million opening gross still the sixth biggest opening weekend ever.
That said, Shrek Forever After’s $71 million is still one of the four biggest openers ever for a cartoon (the others are the last two Shrek films and The Simpsons Movie), so Dreamworks is unlikely to be too upset, and were already saying they expected a softer opening before Friday’s debut.
There were two other openers in the top 10, with MacGruber bombing with only $4.1 million. Many had expected the spy spoof to open in the $15-$20 million range, so only placing number 6 in the top 10 is undoubtedly going to seen as a major disappointment, and marks yet another failure for Universal, following the likes of The Wolfman and Green Zone.
The Bollywood movie Kites made it to the number 10 spot, grossing $1 million. It marks a rare enty into the US top 10 for a Bollywood film, and shows both the lack of depth in the box office at the moment and also the interest generated by Brett Ratner recutting the movie for a western audience.
Take a look below for the US top 10 for the weekend of May 21st-23rd.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Shrek Forever After | $71.25 | $71.25 |
| 2 | Iron Man 2 | $26.6 | $251.2 |
| 3 | Robin Hood | $18.7 | $66.1 |
| 4 | Letters To Juliet | $9.1 | $27.4 |
| 5 | Just Wright | $4.2 | $14.6 |
| 6 | Macgruber | $4.1 | $4.1 |
| 7 | Date Night | $2.8 | $90.6 |
| 8 | A Nightmare On Elm Street | $2.2 | $59.9 |
| 9 | How To Train Your Dragon | $1.8 | $210.9 |
| 10 | Kites | $1.0 | $1.0 |