Shrek 3 breaks animated record
DreamWorks animated movie easily grabs top spot
Shrek the Third opened massively, earning $121.6 million in its first weekend in theatres. That tops the previous animated movie opening, held by Shrek 2.
(Source: Box Office Mojo)
With its $121.6 million opening, DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third is now the third-highest grossing debut movie on record. It is also the highest grossing animated debut on record, easily surpassing the previous champion, 2004's Shrek 2. That flick made $108 million in its first weekend.
Shrek the Third overcame some serious deficits to nab the title, including some less-than-positive reviews and a 43% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
"It's kind of a surprise and a happy one," enthused Ann Daly, chief operating officer of DreamWorks Animation. "We were thinking Shrek the Third could be right around the $100 million mark. What happened, happily, is that we had a good mix of both family and general audiences that really popped the number up."
DreamWorks admitted that Shrek the Third cost $160 million to make, due to the star power that this film boasts. With Julie Andrews, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, and Eric Idle in one flick, that's a lot of stars to pay. It's likely that Shrek the Third will make its investment back in theatres, but will it be the cash . . . ogre that Jeffrey Katzenberg and company are hoping for? Not only that, can Shrek the Third keep it going and top Shrek 2's $460 million take?
That's a toughie: these days, movies are opening big and quickly fading from view. Witness the live-action Spider-Man 3, which opened huge but lost its audience quickly. Critics leveled the same complaints against Spider-Man 3 as they did with Shrek the Third: focusing on franchise fatigue plus the burden of too many characters and plotlines to deal with lead to a rushed, incomplete-feeling film.
On the other hand, family-oriented animated movies (by virtue of their audience demographic) tend to have longer "legs" than other blockbuster flicks. If Shrek the Third can overcome the battering it's taken from critics, it may end up the Animated Box Office champ for this summer.
Other animated movies on the charts aren't faring so well. In its 8th week in theatres, Disney's Meet the Robinsons dropped to #15 from #8. It has yet to cross the $100 million mark; it's stalled at $95.3 million and doesn't look like it'll ever cross that barrier.
At the same time, Warner/Imagi's TMNT is stalled at $53 million after 9 weeks in theatres. It slid to #29, down two spots from its previous position. That's not exactly movie executives' dreams (which usually involve underage would-be starlets washing insanely expensive Ferraris) but it's doing much better than FIrst Look's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Film for Theatres, which is dead in the water at $5.4 million. It slid to #85 from #71.
Canadian fans will definitely have to wait for the DVD if they want their ATHF fix and given the scathing reviews that flick pulled, most probably won't bother.
