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Weekend box-office: Shrek the Third breaks another record

By Scott Rosenberg May 21, 2007, 0:19 GMT

Box-office in recent weeks reminds me of one of those games you play at neighborhood carnivals – you know, the ones where for a buck you get three balls that you throw at solidly placed objects (that maybe look like ducks or clowns) and if you knock down all three you win a prize.

Well, box-office records have been dropping as fast as those clowns and ducks! And Hollywood wins the prize.First there was Spider-Man 3 breaking all records its opening weekend taking in $148 million knocking out ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’ Chest’ from the top of the opening weekend slot.And that’s not even mentioning Paramount/DreamWork’s five week first place run at box-office with ‘Blades of Glory’ and ‘Distrubia.’Now we have, (Slam! down goes another duck) a big green ogre (no NOT the jolly green giant, silly!), ‘Shrek the Third’ taking in $122 million, breaking the franchise’s own record for best animated film. ($900,000 of that total was from Thursday night previews)The Paramount/DreamWork’s Shrek 3 which premed at 4,122 locations shot past Shrek 2 the previous record holder for animated openings which took in $108 million.The big green guy was the third-best debut ever coming in behind Spidey 3 and Pirates 2."The opening was significantly beyond our expectations, said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks Animation. "The movie played much more like an all-audience movie. It played broadly to general and family audiences."Spider-Man 3 came in second place in this weekends box-office race dropping a hefty 51%, taking in $28.5 million from 4,324 locations upping its three week take to $281,858,000.The big green guy and Spidey helped boost overall box-office – the top 12 movies taking in $172.9 million up 12% from the same weekend a year ago when ‘The Da Vinci Code’ dominated the number 1 slot.One interesting note, ‘Disturbia’ after 6 weeks is still within the top five (coming in fourth place). In fact, it ranks #10 in year to date box office take with total cume of $79,440,870 – not bad for a small little film which has become a star vehicle for Shia LaBeouf - it only cost $20 million to make and its largest release was 3.132 theaters.And what about those ducks and clowns? Stay tuned because next week, with the opening of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,' another one is sure to fall.This weekend’s box-office rundown follows courtesy of Box Office Mojo: 1. Shrek the Third (Paramount (DreamWorks))
   $122.0 million | 4,122 | $122.9 million | 12. Spider-Man 3 (Sony / Columbia)
   $28.5 million | 4,324 | $281.9 million | 33. 28 Weeks Later (Fox Atomic)
   $5.2 million | 2,305 | $18.6 million | 24. Disturbia (Paramount (DreamWorks))
   $3.7 million | 2,547 | $71.3 million | 65. Georgia Rule (Universal)
   $3.5 million | 2,531 | $12.6 million | 2

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