'Shrek 2' Shakes Up Box Office with Record Opening

[MrRant 0]

"Shrek 2," a cartoon revolving around a green ogre and his princess bride, trampled even the most optimistic forecasts as it set several new opening records at the weekend box office and kick-started the lucrative summer movie-going season into high gear.

 

The animated sequel sold about $125.3 million worth of tickets in its first five days of release across North America, its distributor, DreamWorks, said on Sunday.

 

If figures hold when final numbers are released on Monday, the total haul will set a new record for a Wednesday release, beating the $124.1 million earned by "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" last December.

 

For the three days beginning Friday, the traditional start of the weekend box office, the film earned $104.3 million, making it the second-best opener behind "Spider-Man," which kicked off its run with $114.8 million in 2002.

 

"No one thought we could get above the mid-80s for the three days," said Jim Tharp, president of domestic theatrical distribution at DreamWorks.

 

Executives at the closely held studio had merely hoped to set a new record for an animated opening, beating the $70 million bow of "Finding Nemo" a year ago, he said.

 

Its Saturday haul of $44.8 million is the best for any single day, beating "Spider-Man's" first Saturday of $43.6 million. The three-day tally for "Shrek 2" also ranks as the best opening so far this year, ahead of "The Passion of the Christ," which debuted with $89.3 million in February. Additionally, the film opened in a record 4,163 theaters.

 

SHREK 3?

 

According to exit polls, more than 80 percent of moviegoers said they would definitely recommend the film, and more than 70 percent would see it again, Tharp said.

 

While a Wednesday opening tends to dilute weekend sales, Tharp said the positive word of mouth from the first two days actually boosted subsequent business.

 

As for another sequel, "Until today it was presumptuous to think about it," said Ann Daly, head of DreamWorks' animation division, "but let me tell you, we're thinking about it now."

 

The first "Shrek," released in May 2001, opened with $42.4 million in its first weekend, and went on to earn $267.7 million domestically.

 

"Shrek 2," which received its world premiere at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, follows the title character(Mike Myers) as he and his new princess bride, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), visit her regal parents (John Cleese and Julie Andrews). It was directed by Andrew Adamson, who worked on the first one, along with Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. The film was budgeted at between $70 million and $75 million, DreamWorks said.

 

Elsewhere at the box office, incumbent champ "Troy" slipped to No. 2 with $23.8 million in its second weekend, after a relatively modest drop of 49 percent. The worldwide total for the Brad Pitt costume epic stands at $232 million, including $85.8 million from North America. The film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc .

 

The monster thriller "Van Helsing" was at No. 3, also down one place, with $10.1 million and a 17-day haul of 100.2 million. Its worldwide total stands at $229 million, said a spokesman for Universal Pictures, which is owned by General Electric Co.-controlled NBC Universal.

 

Rounding out the top five were "Mean Girls" (Paramount Pictures) and "Man on Fire" (20th Century Fox) with $6.9 million and $3.5 million, respectively. Their domestic totals rose to $64.7 million and $69.3 million, respectively.

 

Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc. Fox is a unit of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

 

The top 10 featured only one other newcomer. The acclaimed documentary "Super Size Me," in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock risks his life to eat exclusively at McDonald's Corp. restaurants for 30 days, jumped two places to No. 10 with $953,000 from just 148 theaters. Its three-week haul stands at $2.9 million. The film was released by privately held entities Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

 

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/wee...boxofficer.html

 

Box Office Charts From Exhibitor Relations Co., Inc.

 

Daily Box Office - Weekend Box Office - All Time Box Office 

 

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Weekend Box Office Estimates (U.S.)

May 21 - 23 weekend View Last Week's Actuals 

This Wk Last Wk Title Dist. Weekend Gross Cumulative Gross Rlse Wks # of Theaters

1 - Shrek 2 D'WORKS $104,300,000 $125,300,000 1 4163

2 1 Troy WB $23,800,000 $85,835,000 2 3411

3 2 Van Helsing UNIV $10,100,000 $100,150,000 3 3418

4 3 Mean Girls PARA $6,900,000 $64,699,000 4 3054

5 4 Man on Fire FOX $3,500,000 $69,281,002 5 2104

6 5 Breakin' All the Rules SONY $2,800,000 $9,008,000 2 1318

7 6 13 Going on 30 SONY $2,500,000 $52,068,000 5 2028

8 7 New York Minute WB $1,185,000 $12,505,000 3 2360

9 9 Kill Bill Vol. 2 M'MAX $1,071,865 $62,704,712 6 854

10 12 Super Size Me IDP $953,455 $2,921,520 3 148

11 8 Laws of Attraction NL $950,000 $16,875,000 4 1010

12 15 A Day Without a Mexican TELVISA $544,000 $1,390,000 1 104

 

Goddamn. I thought it would do well... but not that well.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I didn't even see one preview for it...

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

Next week:

 

1. The Day After Tomorrow

 

2. Shrek 2

 

3. Raising Helen

 

4. Troy

 

5. Soul Plane

[starvenger 0]

Impressive. I think it'll hang on to #1 over the long weekend, after which the SweatHogwarters will make Shrek their bitch...

[The Fett 0]

Wow! There were people predicting 45mil for the whole weekend and the movie got that in one day.

[Guest OctoberBlood]

Awesome. It deserves it.

[Placebo Effect 0]

God damn. They had a great marketing strategy I guess. They didn't pay for many TV trailers, but they made sure everyone in the fucking world knew about Shrek thanks to thier promotional crossovers with every food in the supermarket.

[Guest bort]

I would expect soul plane to bomb, the movie was leaked to the net almost 3 months ago so i would guess a fair amount of people have seen it and i havent seen 1 preview yet for it

[MrRant 0]

Odd... I keep seeing previews for Soul Plane.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Wait.....

 

 

 

 

SHREK 2 CAME OUT? Where the hell have I been?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I honestly thought Shrek2 came out next weekend..

 

I guess Im not the only one.

[razazteca 0]

Next week:

 

1. The Day After Tomorrow

 

2. Shrek 2

 

3. Raising Helen

 

4. Troy

 

5. Soul Plane

I don't think Day After Tomorrow will make that much money $6 million max. Who is in it Jake Galafjfioealgjalhkus and Dennis Quad?

 

1. Shrek2

2. Soul Plane

3. Troy

4. Raising Helen

5. Day After Tomorrow

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

Your joking, right ?

 

I would expect soul plane to bomb, the movie was leaked to the net almost 3 months ago so i would guess a fair amount of people have seen it and i havent seen 1 preview yet for it

 

Not everybody has internet access, and the one's that do, might not know.

 

I must say, if you don't take the movie serious (Which you shouldn't), it looks pretty good.

[razazteca 0]

Who takes a Tom Arnold movie serious?

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Who takes a Tom Arnold movie serious?

 

 

 

 

I think that says it all.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

EDIT: Nevermind.

 

What I meant by serious. You know how Critics are, they'll be the first one's to label it "Worst movie of 2004". How can you take that movie serious...

[Downhome 0]

Calling something the "worst movie of 2004" isn't taking it serious.

[Placebo Effect 0]

People thought Jackson Family Vacation would bomb, and it did tremendously. But then again, people thought The Wash would bomb, and well, it did just that.

 

Black cinema always dwells out big surprises.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

The Wash had a budget of like 3 or 4 million, then ended up making 10 million+ all together.

 

How High was a mid sized hit, now Method Man and Redman have their own TV show on FOX.

 

Calling something the "worst movie of 2004" isn't taking it serious.

 

Yeah it is. How are people gonna sit there and expect something out of it ? It's one of those "Turn on the ol brain switch" movies.

[Downhome 0]

Yeah it is. How are people gonna sit there and expect something out of it ? It's one of those "Turn on the ol brain switch" movies.

There is a difference between a good "turn on the ol brain switch" movie and just a pure shit ""turn on the ol brain switch" flick. Some movies are just plain out bad filmmaking.

 

Look at a comedy like Starsky & Hutch. It got a fresh rating at RottenTomatoes, and that film is obviously just "stupid", and it's a "turn on the ol brain switch".

 

As I said, some movies are just plain out bad filmmaking, regardless if they are a serious film or not. Hell, the South Park film got great reviews and an overall of 80%+ at RottenTomatoes.

[syxx2001 0]

Trust me, no one is going to see Soul Plane. For one, its a black movie, and almost everyone black (or all of the black people I know, which is alot) have seen the bootleg already. They were even talking about it a few days ago on the morning show, for people like 35-50, about how Soul Plane looks good (the bootleg, not the movie) and how you can go to your local barbershop and get a copy or tell your child to buy it from somebody at school. They got on the subject because Tarintino was talking about how he isnt anti-piracy and encourages the bootlegging of Kill Bill in China because otherwise, it wouldn't be seen there.

[Tawren 0]

My god? 125 million?

 

I just...I...Spider-Man...ohhh.

 

EDIT: I went back and read the whole article. I had assumed it made 125 on the weekend when it made 125 on the whole 5 days. Spider-Man retains! Wooo!

[Mole 0]

I didn't think it was going to do well because it only made $11.4 million on Wednesday.

[Guest El Satanico]

Wow, I knew it would be big, but not this big. It always a surprise when a movie gets a mega sized opening weekend like this.

 

The people predicting 45 million need to be smacked in the back of thier fool head.

[The Mandarin 0]

Soul Plane is going to bomb. #6, if it's lucky.

[Guest El Satanico]

How is #6 for Soul Plane considered bombing? I'm sure the budget was on the low side, it's facing heavy competition and it's on 1400 screens, so I'm sure there's no big expectations for it. All movies don't need to be in the top 3 on opening weeked to be considered successful.

[Mole 0]

Its budget was $16 million.

 

But being number 6 isn't all that good. New York Minute opened at #4 with a $6 million opening and was considered a bomb.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

But, it had a little bit of hype surrounding it. The Olsen Twins first big theatre release in a number of years, etc.

 

EDIT: Didn't it open up in over 3,000+ theatres ? Soul Plane will only be opening up in a little over 1,000+

 

Plus, you already had movies like Mean Girls and 13 Going On 30 out there in the market.