If I made more than $70 million over a weekend, I’d probably be pretty happy about it. When a big, green, 3-D ogre makes that much coin, he’s kinda bummed.
Not that you’d know it immediately. The folks at DreamWorks are surely putting a brave face on Shrek Forever After‘s $71.3 million box-office triumph this weekend, which pounded Iron Man 2 ($26.6 million) into second place after a two-week run at the top. It’s the third-biggest opening of the year (right behind Iron Man 2 and Alice in Wonderland), and enough money to send 1,400 college-age ogres to Harvard for a year, including books. It’s already made more than several films nominated for Best Picture last year.
But considering Shrek 2 made $108 million and Shrek the Third pocketed $121.6 mil in their opening weekends, respectively, the only conclusion we can draw is that the franchise may be reaching its saturation point. Despite its family-friendly rating and opening on a massive number of 3-D screens, which had previously been a surefire way to break the bank, this supposed final chapter of Shrek performed well below the $100 million that many box-office prognosticators were expecting it to earn. But how much ogrish behavior can moviegoers stand?
More to the point, how much can you stand? Did you see the green galloot in action this weekend? And if so, what did you think?
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