Image Credit: Craig BlankenhornWith a significant drop for Sex and the City on Saturday and just mid-level earnings for Prince of Persia, Shrek Forever After is on track to win what looks like the slowest Memorial Day holiday weekend at the box office in a decade. It’s also the first time in five years a holdover release will capture the Memorial Day crown.
Perhaps those weak reviews on Sex really did do some damage to its box office performance. Despite the film’s B+ from Cinemascore, the sequel took in an estimated $10 million on Saturday, down from its estimated $13 million take on Friday. Its three-day gross stands at $32 million; its four-day total (it opened on Thursday) has reached only $46.3 million, far less than the $57 million grossed by the original two years ago.
Meanwhile, Prince of Persia took third place, but seemed to suffer from an overall lack of interest. The Jerry Bruckheimer epic adventure starring Jake Gyllenhaal and based on the popular video game just crossed the $30 million mark for its first three days of release. It received a B from Cinemascore and seems to be resonating best with boys under 18.
Shrek Forever After hit the top earning close to $17 million on Saturday, for a three-day total of $43.3 million. (Seven percent of its total came from IMAX screens.) The fourth chapter in the billion-dollar franchise seems to be making up ground after not breaking any records last weekend, climbing to $133 million in 10 days. The final chapter is still tracking more than $50 million behind Shrek the Third and it’s unlikely it will be able to catch up.
The three releases at the top are a far cry from last year’s Memorial Day frame, which boasted a three-day $54 million gross from the Night at the Museum sequel and $42 million from the opening frame of Terminator Salvation. The weekend is likely to be down more than 14% compared with the holiday weekend in 2009.
The rest of the top ten was dominated by well-playing holdovers that, with the exception of MacGruber, fell less than 50% for the weekend. Marvel Studio’s Iron Man 2 claimed fourth place with an estimated $16 million, a decline of only 39 percent for the frame. In its four weekends of release, the superhero actioner has earned $274 million, outpacing the original by over $15 million. Universal’s Robin Hood fell 45 percent, earning another $10.3 million in its third weekend in theaters, for a cume of $86.2 million. It’s not certain the expensive film from director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe will even cross the $100 million mark.
Summit Entertainment’s Letters to Juliet is holding its own despite the box office challenge from the Sex and the City women. The Amanda Seyfried-starring romance dropped a scant 34 percent from last weekend, grossing $5.9 million for the three days, for a cume of $38.1 million. Seventh place went to Fox Searchlight’s Just Wright. The Queen Latifah-starrer earned another $2.2 million to put its three-week gross at $18.2 million. Twentieth Century Fox’s Date Night just keeps on trucking. The film is hanging in the top ten after two months of theatrical release, adding another $1.75 million to get a little closer to the $100 million mark ($93.4 million).
Poor MacGruber. The Relativity Media-financed comedy from Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels lost more than 63% of its value from its weak opening weekend, collecting just $1.5 million for three days to land in ninth place. The film, starring Will Forte, has brought in just $7.5 million after two weekends of release. How to Train Your Dragon clings to the tenth spot in its tenth weekend with another $1 million. Overall, the Dreamworks Animated flick has generated over $212 million.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your holiday break!
Hopefully this will put an end to any more Sex and the City movies.
Sex and the city 2 was number 1 over all worldwide!!! So sorry but in just 4 days it’s made more than it cost to make, so there will be a Part 3!!! My guess May- 2012!!! Can’t wait…
Piece of garbage.
Made more money worldwide?! Are you mental? where did you get this information. Everyone IGNORE Glee’s comment she is MAKING IT UP! Robin Hood and Shrek are doing better than it WORLDWIDE. She just can’t stand anyone criticizing the movie. God knows she loves it more than anything. What a TROLL!
Sex and the City is for weak-minded idiots.
The third sex and the city movie should take place at the races.. after all, it already has a talking horse in it… damn I’m funny
love how all the “geeks”, who are the only ones that post hateful “troll” name-calling remarks on here, bash anything other than what’s COOL in their geekdom world – so sorry they make movies for women too geez deal with it for one weekend why don’t you – if you knew what a vagina actually was maybe you will be more interested in a movie with four of them? (i’m a geek too by the way since i’m on here commenting but i went with my wife to see both “sex” movies and the fact she enjoyed every minute was plenty enjoyment for myself not to mention what i got for going with her when we got home
@Darrin, inflatable objects are not marriage material
They probably have the next three movies all lined up starting with Sex in the Retirement Home,followed up by Sex in the Nursing Home,and wrapping up the series with Sex in the Funeral Home.
Hey Darrin: I dont need to bribe my wife with a movie to make that night especially vigorous. Sorry you live with some chick who A) is a huge SATC fan and B) witholds from you unless she gets something in return.
Pretty sad when people resort to name calling and just being plain rude. Sex And The City was a good movie, regardless of how people judge what it made in box office grosses. My thoughts are that hollywood should continue to make movies that aren’t all about blowing stuff up and boring us with cheap thrills. Hopefully another SATC movie will come out just for the simple fact that even at its worst it was still a decent movie and a feel good romp!
It sure does seem like there are many men making negative comments. Did you even see the movie? Doubt it. You just don’t like it because it is Sex and the City. The series was great and the first movie was good. I have not seen 2 yet, but at least I am not just making negative comments because I am a man and am somehow scared of that movie and series franchise. How SAD are you all!
wrong it is not mainly men plenty of women hate sex in the city, it was insulting to gays unless you believe all gay men are a joke and insulting to women’s rights! everyone female I know with a brain hates it. So please with the trying it a male issue
The title is Sex AND, not Sex IN.
You are truly a moron.
OOOHHH!!!! A little sensitive are we? You hurt my feelings,you crusty old bag.
This is for Moe, don’t feel to stupid when u read this but #1 I’m a 27 year old man with a wife and 2 little boys!!! 2nd check Box office mojo.com and then u and ur small-minded brain will see who’s #1 Worldwide this week! Grow up and don’t feel like u have to HATE on Women! Great Movie!
I second that notion
A good movie, don’t make me vomit. The movie is an insulting over long whiny mess.. 2 and a half hours of slogged down dribble, really allyn have a little dignity.
No wonder this weekend is down overall. Look at the line-up. Just a sea of crap.
Problem is Allyn, it’s *not* a ‘good movie’. It was by far the worst reviewed film in the top 10 this weekend. ‘Boring us with cheap thrills’ – that’s exactly what this movie is doing, except instead of targeting men, it’s targeting women.
This is what happens when “Sex” snubs the City. It’s a shame too, because while I would have had liked to seen a 3rd installment; if the sequel was any indication of what that would be like, I’ll pass! Where would they go to next, the Amazon?
Sex and the City never should have been carried over to film. It was a series that was tailor-made for a television format. The first movie was harmless fun, but since I hear the second is godawful, I probably won’t be seeing it. “Prince of Persia” sucked. Jerry Bruckheimer produces the dumbest films in Hollywood. I’m glad both of these films (as well as Robin Hood) aren’t doing that well with American audiences.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to make a full-length feature out of a 2 minute sketch that wasn’t that funny to begin with should lose their jobs. MacGruber? Anyone?
I just don’t think the current Saturday Night Live has any strong recurring characters to justify basing a full length movie on the character. I’m sure MacGruber will find an audience after it’s theatrical run.
I saw MacGruber the weekend it came out and I thought they did a pretty good job of making a full length film out of sketch. It’s better appreciated if you can handle the gross out humor.
I saw it too…As much as I would like to have enjoyed it the movie was just plain bad…Not SATC bad…but still…bad.
I dunno…kinda looking forward to the “Target Lady” movie.
Nice to “Shrek” hang in there. I hope will continue to do well like “How to Traing Your Dragon.”
I meant TRAIN.
I wanted to go to the movies this weekend but there was not one new film I wanted to see. I’d seen Ironman and Juliet. I hated the first Sex movie, so I had not interest in that. Had no interest in seeing a movie based on a videogame, even if Jake bulked up for it and the fact that it appeared that a fat joke was one of the main features of Shrek is enough to keep me away. Hoping next weekend brings more interesting films.
I hope this shows movie studios that many people want family movies. There was no need to make Prince of Persia a PG13 movie. Cut out a word or a scene and make it PG so that the whole family can see it.
just what we need, more inane, watered down movies for the prudes out there. hey guess what, instead of taking your children to movies, get them to read.
Very good point you have there. Awesome!!
Reading is good, I won’t argue there, but the rest of your comment is, well, inane itself. Using curse words in movies doesn’t increase there value, in many cases they are just annoying. I think it is very respectable to teach kids to read, but sometimes it is nice for the entire family to go to the movies and watch something that isn’t full of offensive words. By the way, I’m not prude, just a responsible adult.
Responsible adults will take their kids to movies that are aimed at children.
SATC 2 is underperforming in comparison to the first movie because a lot of fans were disappointed with the first movie and this one is a pure garbage. if they go on with SATC 3, it`ll make even less because this one left such a bad taste. It`s always like that. If there`s goodwill about the first movie, people will flock to see the second. If there`s bad taste left from the movie, sequel`s opening will suffer. Examples: POTC:DMC opened big on the strength of POTC:TCOTBP but POTC:AWE opened less than POTC:DMC because many fans were disappointed with the sequel.
Expect huge opening for HTTYD 2 and underperformance for Transformers 3.
what do those initials mean?
No idea either. Ol’ tipsy must be drunk again.
Pirates of the Caribbean movies…..
POTC is Pirates of the Caribbean.
SATC is Sex and the City.
HTTYD is How to Train Your Dragon.
Tipsy makes a valid point. The gross of a movie in a franchise is often indicative of people’s attitude toward the previous installment.
People were iffy on Pirates 2 and Shrek 3, which caused box office for Pirates 3 and Shrek 4 to drop somewhat.
Prisoner of Azkaban, regarded by many to be the best Harry Potter film, is also the one that grossed the least, because Chamber of Secrets was disappointing. But Goblet of Fire picked up again, on the strength of Azkaban.
You see it a lot in franchises.
Gotta agree with Tipsy and Kate. Really liked Shrek, which made me go to the theater to watch 2. Loved 2, went to see 3. Hated 3, refuse to go see 4, despite the reviews saying that it’s a good close to the series. I think I’d rather just Netflix it.
I disagree with u on one thing. POTC: DMC to many was the best of the franchise. Most people LOVED it. The reason why the third one opened poorly was because it came out to quick.
And the super lame-o summer of 2010 continues.
Worst summer movie line up ever!*
*until Inception and Toy Story, hopefully.
2010 summer movies will never be 1982, which was the best summer of movies…. think of it… ET, Poltergeist, The Thing, Blade Runner, Star Trek Wrath of Kahn, Tron, The Road Warrior!
Don’t like ET or Poltergeist. The rest are great!
But yeah, this has got to be one of the weakest summers in history H’wood.
I read elsewhere that Disney kind of WANTED Prince of Persia to bomb. It was made by fired executives and it would have looked like a terrible decision to fire all those people if the movie was a monster success.
They needed to justify that the previous regime was making bad decisions.
Of course, the movie wasn’t great to begin with. It wasn’t bad either, just very middle-of-the-road and forgettable.
I watched SATC 2 last night and really liked it. The friendship of the four women was just as endearing as ever. I loved the clothes, the jewelry, the fantasy getaway and the male eye candy! My only complaint is that it was a little long but still it was a frothy fun holiday movie. The audience I saw with love it too! The SATC brand did not disappoint.
See? A comment from a real SATC fan. That’s who the target audience is – fans! Not critics, not people who never watched the show, not straight men… I love that the producers and cast keep giving the fans what they want… Everyone else just doesn’t get it.
So fans don’t want well-written scripts and intelligent characters? Gotcha.
I liked the movie, could it have been better, yes, of course, but it was great to see what the characters are up too….I always find it amusing the people who hate on this movie, men can’t deal with strong women charachters and girls are jealous by women who seem to have it all….movie or not.
@mel
what is it with women who say that men’s problem with “Sex And The City 2″ is the portrayal of strong women? I have a lot of straight male friends who love a strong female on movies and TV.
For me, that’s just an excuse women invented to allow themselves to like these movies.
There are many stong women on TV and movies (not as many as it should be, but still…).
And I gotta teel you, a whiny wife that complains about TV and women that only talk about sex are not it.
Some of just weren’t interested in the movie to begin with, since we found the show to be boring and tedious, with whiny characters and bad writing.
All we need now is a Sex and Sheep In The Big City hybrid sequel, a crossover with the underrated cartoon show, Sheep in The Big City.
what about “survival of the dead”? wondering how it did compared to “diary”? both were very limited release but still curious…did it not play anywhere lol??
Ick! So I guess this means Shrek #5 is coming to a theater near you soon. They need to let that franchise die, same with Sex and the City.
No, they said there will be no “Shrek 5.”
They are making a Puss in Boots spin-off.
I’m not surprised the box office is pretty slow this weekend. I don’t know many people here in Northern California who want to be inside this weekend; we have been having a ton of rain, it even rained this week and rain in May is about as common as a polar bear walking down the street here. So most people are pretty stir crazy around here and this weekend we’ve had clear skies and temps in the 70′s.
The current crop of movies is about as exciting as a Jay Leno monologue.
Prince of Persia looks too much like Clash of the Titans (which was awful) from the commercials and nearly all reviews for Sex and the City 2 have been negative. So far the summer movies have been a complete disappointment (yes I’m talking to you as well Iron Man 2). Bring on Toy Story 3 and Inception, and Tron can’t get here soon enough.