Weekend Recap: Not up to Shrek-spectations

Everyone’s favorite ogre with a brogue was back this weekend, but finished with just $70 million, still an accomplishment, but $30-40 million less than “Shrek the Third” and “Shrek 2.” It seems enough people were tired of the franchise because this also includes receipts from 3-D and IMAX showings.

Hollywood’s puss is shaking in its boots. When the most financially powerful animated character fails to do as expected with the addition of 3-D, we finally have proof that 3-D is not a magical cure-all.

More surprisingly, however, is that “Saturday Night Live” film “MacGruber” bombed. Not even the wily mullet-bearer will be able to finagle his way out of this situation. $4 million is a terrible take, which says a lot about either how the film was marketed, how stupid it appeared to most people or maybe just their overall impressions from previous SNL features. Don’t be surprised if NBC gives up after this one.

1. Shrek Forever After – $70.8 M (weekend) … $70.8 M (gross)
2. Iron Man 2 – $26.3 M  … $251 M
3. Robin Hood – $18.7 M … $66.6 M
4. Letters to Juliet – $9 M … $27.3 M
5. Just Wright – $4.2 M … $14.7 M
6. MacGruber – $4 M … $4 M
7. Date Night – $2.9 M … $90.7 M
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street – $2.3 M … $59.9 M
9. How to Train Your Dragon – $1.9 M … $210.9 M
10. Kites – $958 th … $958 th

“Iron Man 2” and “Robin Hood” saw expected drops of close to 50 percent, while “Letters to Juliet” held up decently by comparison.

The box office was up 8.9 percent from last week, but you wouldn’t know it. Somehow the Bollywood film “Kites” managed to find the top ten with fewer than a million dollars.