Shrek Rules the Box Office… for now.
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 21, 2007
We knew it was going to happen. Spider-Man 3 was going to run the box office show for a few weeks, facing only limited competition and an army of blockbuster hungry fanboys en route to some major web-slinging, record-breaking fun. But like all good things, Spidey’s success wasn’t meant to last. In week three of Spider-mania, Dreamworks decided to drop the atomic bomb of family flicks, Shrek the Third. The mass marketing machine was running at full speed, with a major promotion with McDonalds and every 3rd commercial on Paramount property Nickelodeon featuring the lovable Ogre. There was no way that Shrek could not win big at the box office, yet we are all left to wonder how long he will be able to hold onto his throne…
But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the studio estimates for this weekend’s top 10 box office earners:
- Shrek the Third (Paramount/Dreamworks) – $122 million
- Spider-Man 3 (Sony) – $28.5 million
- 28 Weeks Later (Fox Atomic) – $5.1 million
- Disturbia (Paramount/Dreamworks) – $3.7 million
- Georgia Rule (Universal) – $3.5 million
- Fracture (New Line) – $2.4 million
- Delta Farce (Lionsgate) – $1.8 million
- The Invisible (Buena Vista) – $1.3 million
- Hot Fuzz (Rogue) – $1.2 million
- Waitress (Fox Searchlight) – $1.1 million
Source: Box Office Mojo
With its $122 million dollar opening weekend, Shrek the Third took in the biggest opening weekend of any animated film ever, beating out its predecessor Shrek 2’s record of $108 million. As expected, Spider-Man 3 took another hard fall to only $28.5 million, cutting its weekend gross in half or worse for the second week in a row. As they say, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Other notables in the top 10 were limited release sensations Hot Fuzz (my personal favorite film of the year) and Waitress (my personal second favorite film of the year). Waitress brought in $1.1 million in only 116 locations, prompting Fox Searchlight to roll it to more than 500 locations this upcoming week. And that is always good to see, especially for such a sensational film.
Looking ahead, there is another box office behemoth arriving this Friday. If you are a denizen of Disney World, then you know which film I am talking about. Look out folks, the marketing blitz is on as the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End rapidly approaches. Industry experts are looking to Pirates to not only create a 3-film battle royale at the box office, but they are looking for it to create some problems for Shrek the Third. The good news for Shrek? It will face almost no competition with the family demographic, at least until Brad Byrd’s Ratatouille releases on June 29. Pirates may also be hurt by its alleged 3 hour+ run time, which was a problematic thing for Grindhouse earlier in the year. Of course as I always say, time will tell who will come out on top, but if I had to call it based on my gut feeling, I’d say that Pirates is going to be huge and we may see a larger than expected drop for Shrek next week. But then again, I have been wrong before…
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