DESPITE OGRE, BOX OFFICE IS LESS GREEN THAN LAST YEAR

It’s not often that a film that opens with a weekend take of more than $70 million is regarded as a disappointment. But such was the case with Paramount/DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After, which recorded $70.84 million in ticket sales, well below widespread expectations by analysts of more than $100 million. But, despite the presence of numerous big-budget features on the marquees, theater attendance was down nearly 16 percent from a year ago, when Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Terminator Salvation collected nearly $100 million between them and Star Trek earned $23 million in its third week. Iron Man 2 earned slightly more than that — $26.36 million — in its third week, dropping 49 percent from last weekend, while Robin Hood dropped 48 percent to $18.77 million. The only other film to open wide this weekend was Universal’s spoof MacGruber, which brought in just $4.04 million — an amount that ordinarily would have constituted a catastrophe, except that it reportedly only cost less than $10 million to make.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Shrek Forever After, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $70,838,207, (New); 2. Iron Man 2, Paramount, $26,361,258, 3 Wks. ($251,026,061); 3. Robin Hood, Universal, $18,769,220, 2 Wks. ($66,165,690); 4. Letters to Juliet, Summit, $9,006,266, 2 Wks. ($27,332,507); 5. Just Wright, Fox Searchlight, $4,290,431, 2 Wks. ($14,697,071); 6. MacGruber, Universal, $4,043,495, (New); 7. Date Night, 20th Century Fox, $2,913,504, 7 Wks. ($90,748,818); 8. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Warner Bros., $2,321,388, 4 Wks. ($59,967,500); 9. How to Train Your Dragon, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $1,901,211, 9 Wks. ($210,990,918); 10. Kites, Reliance Big Pictures, $958,673, (New).