Shrek 4 Opens With $71 Million In The US

While Dreamworks Animation has had other successes, Shrek has always been the franchise that's stood head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to box office. As a result, it's little surprise the fourth film in the big ogre series, Shrek Forever After, has topped the US box office in its first weekend - the real question has always been how big would it open? 

$71 million in its first three days certainly isn't a bad haul by most standards, but is likely to be seen as a bit of a disappointment compared to the record hauls the last two Shrek movie took when they opened. Both of the previous Shrek films opened to over $100 million, with Shrek The Third $121 million opening gross still the sixth biggest opening weekend ever.

That said, Shrek Forever After's $71 million is still one of the four biggest openers ever for a cartoon (the others are the last two Shrek films and The Simpsons Movie), so Dreamworks is unlikely to be too upset, and were already saying they expected a softer opening before Friday's debut.

There were two other openers in the top 10, with MacGruber bombing with only $4.1 million. Many had expected the spy spoof to open in the $15-$20 million range, so only placing number 6 in the top 10 is undoubtedly going to seen as a major disappointment, and marks yet another failure for Universal, following the likes of The Wolfman and Green Zone.

The Bollywood movie Kites made it to the number 10 spot, grossing $1 million. It marks a rare enty into the US top 10 for a Bollywood film, and shows both the lack of depth in the box office at the moment and also the interest generated by Brett Ratner recutting the movie for a western audience.

Take a look below for the US top 10 for the weekend of May 21st-23rd.