SHREK still on top

The studio behind Shrek Forever After had plenty to laugh about as the film beat a pair of comedies at the North American box-office...

The studio behind Shrek Forever After had plenty to laugh about as the film beat a pair of comedies at the North American box-office to take the No. 1 spot for the third straight weekend,according to studio estimates issued recently.
The animated films strong staying power and its estimated weekend take of 25.3 million bodes well for DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc,which last month saw its share price dip after the movie suffered a lower-than-expected opening.

Families seem to be the ones really driving the box-office and Shrek being a great movie for everyone to see together,that seems to be working very well for it, said Anne Globe,head of worldwide marketing at DreamWorks.
The raunchy comedy Get Him To The Greek from producer Judd Apatow claimed the No. 2 spot with 17.4 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada.
Its very interesting that Judd Apatow makes very responsibly budgeted films so it bodes well for the overall success in theatres and beyond, said Nikki Rocco,president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures,the General Electric Co-owned studio that released the film.

Get Him To The Greek,which cost about 40 million to produce,stars British actor Russell Brand as a brash rock star and Jonah Hill as a record label intern who must get him from London to Los Angeles for a concert date.
The romantic comedy Killers,which studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp had declined to show for critics to avoid scathing reviews,came in at No. 3 with 16.1 million in the United States and Canada.
The movie,with a budget in the mid-60 million range,stars Ashton Kutcher as a man with a secret job as a killer,and Katherine Heigl as his unknowing wife.

OVERALL BOX-OFFICE DOWN
The overall box-office was about 125 million,which was down a huge 25 per cent from the same weekend a year ago,which saw 165.3 million in U.S. and Canada ticket sales,said Paul Dergarabedian,head of tracking firm Hollywood.com Box Office.
The box-office was down recently too. We really have to hope that films like The Karate Kid and The A-Team with this totally 80s weekend will turn things around, he said.

Going into the weekend,box-office watchers had expected Shrek Forever After,which is distributed by Viacom Incs Paramount Pictures,to best Get Him To The Greek and Killers. Its strong performance was only a 41.6 per cent drop compared to the previous weekend.
DreamWorks last animated film,How To Train Your Dragon,also opened weakly but showed strong staying power by dominating the family audience.

Shrek had competition for families attention recently,as 20th Century Fox,a division of News Corp,debuted the talking dog movie Marmaduke. But it opened to only 11.3 million in the United States and Canada,placing at No. 6.
Shrek has made 183 million in the U.S. and Canada and 68.4 million internationally,but it has yet to open in most of Europe and Latin America because of a delayed release designed to avoid losing audiences to the World Cup.
Sex And The City 2,in its second weekend in theatres,suffered a sizable drop of 59 per cent to 12.7 million. The poorly reviewed female-oriented comedy is from Warner Bros,a division of Time Warner Inc.

That performance placed Sex one rank below the estimated 13.9 million in U.S. and Canada ticket sales collected by the Walt Disney Cos video game adaptation Prince Of Persia,which took the No. 4 spot in its third weekend in international release and second weekend in the U.S. and Canada.
The low-budget horror movie Splice from Warner Bros debuted with 7.5 million in the U.S. and Canada,which was slightly below expectations and placed it at No. 8.