Sunday update:
Once again, a DreamWorks Animation 3D title has entered the market with a thud, only to catch momentum at the box office in the following weeks ... or at least enough momentum to pass the weekend's midling new releases
And on Saturday, "Shrek Forever After" finished No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada with $17 million, besting new releases "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" ($10.5 million) and "Sex and the City 2" ($10.1 million).
After a disappointing opening for the fourth "Shrek" movie -- $70.6 million was way below expectations, especially considering the primo 3D ticket prices -- the film is expected to finish the four-day weekend period with around $56 million and an impressive week-two decline of less than 30 percent.
As expected, Warner/New Line's "Sex 2" dropped off considerably from its initial two days, which saw a rabid famale core fan base drive it to a $14.2 million Thursday and $13.1 million Friday.
Overall, the domestic box office is about 14 percent off the pace set by last year's $215 million Memorial Day weekend, according to studio estimates.
Saturday update:
For Warner/New Line's "Sex and the City" franchise, it was the same sexy start as last time, just drawn out over two days instead of one.
Disney's pricey "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" now must cross a veritable desert of extended playability to reach profitability. And speaking of playability, DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek Forever After" may be showing some signs of "Dragon"-like durability in week two.
Those were the Friday highlights at the Memorial Day-weekend box office, which one day in, is tracking about 10 percent below the $215 million generated over the same four-day period in 2009, according to studio estimates.
Opening a day early to cash in on the rush of the core female fan base, "Sex and the City 2" added a domestic box-office-leading $13 million Friday to an impressive Thursday gross of $14.2. The $27.2 million total was just a bit above the $26 million Friday opening that the original "Sex and the City" enjoyed in 2008.
Over the official four-day holiday box-office period, which doesn't include Thursday, "Sex" is projected to gross just under $50 million, which will likely give 3D family film "Shrek 4" the weekend victory.
The fourth "Shrek" installment -- which grossed $11.3 million in its second Friday -- is pacing to finish the weekend with about $56 million, which would represent an impressive 27 percent week-to-week drop from its disappointing $70.6 million opening.
However, like the DreamWorks 3D film that was in the market before it, "How to Train Your Dragon," which also opened with a thud, the erstwhile "Shrek: The Final Chapter" has yielded especially high movie-goer word-of-mouth scores.
In third place, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced "Prince of Persia" grossed $10.4 million Friday and is on pace to finish the four-day period with around $37 million. Costing over $200 million to produce, according to several reports, that's a comparable start to Universal's similarly pricey period adventure film "Robin Hood" two weeks ago.
