Despite four new movies opening wide in the US on Friday, none of them managed to really break out and so it was Shrek Forever After that remained at the top of the box office list, grabbing another $25 million to take its total North American gross to $183 million.
The top new movie was Get Him To The Greek at number 2, which scored $17.4 million. It’s a passable opening for a comedy and about the same as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which also featured Russell Brand’s rock star Aldous Snow, took in its first weekend. That left Killers, starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher, in third place with $16.1 million, which isn’t too bad considering there was bad buzz and no press screenings, and when the reviews did come, they were abysmal.
Further down the list was Marmaduke at number 6 with $11.3 million. That’s likely to be seen as a big disappointment, as it was given a big release on over 3,000 screens, and talking dogs are usually seen as a surefire bet. However it appears that Fox simply couldn’t get family all that interested in the Great Dane, as they preferred to go and see Shrek instead. The final new entry was Splice, which took $7.4 million and placed eighth. While not too bad for an independently made, r-rated horror thriller, Warner (who bought the distribution rights) have been pushing it hard and must have hoped they’d score a breakout hit after huge amounts of internet buzz. However the height of the summer season may not have been the best time to release it.
Overall though, there’s little doubt that while this is normally the highest grossing time of the movie year, the box office is pretty weak at the moment, and indeed May was the first time this year that for the month, the 2010 box office was lower than 2009’s. That’s due to underwheleming performances from a slew of films such as Prince Of Persia and Robin Hood, with only Iron Man 2 a true bona fide hit. The studios will be hoping this pick up significantly with the rest of their summer offerings.
Take a look below for the box office top 10 for the weekend of June 4th-6th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Shrek Forever After | $25.3 | $183.0 |
| 2 | Get Him To The Greek | $17.4 | $17.4 |
| 3 | Killers | $16.1 | $16.1 |
| 4 | Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time | $13.9 | $59.4 |
| 5 | Sex and the City 2 | $12.6 | $73.4 |
| 6 | Marmaduke | $11.3 | $11.3 |
| 7 | Iron Man 2 | $7.7 | $291.2 |
| 8 | Splice | $7.4 | $7.4 |
| 9 | Robin Hood | $5.1 | $94.2 |
| 10 | Letters To Juliet | $3.0 | $43.3 |