'Shrek Forever After' outperforms 'Greek,' Splice,' 'Killers' and 'Marmaduke'

By Sarah Sluis

As predicted, Shrek Forever After dropped 41% to come out on top for the third week in a row. The family animated comedy brought in $25.3 million for a three-week total of $183 million. Not so bad for a third sequel.

Among new releases, Get Him to the Greek soared the highest, opening to $17.4 million. Judd Apatow produced the comedy, which stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. Both of these rising comic actors already have a few starring roles lined up after the film, as does director Nicholas Stoller. Stoller's last movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, also opened to $17 million, so his performance, at the very least, is consistent.

Killers may not have been screened for critics, but it still finished third with $16.1 million, slightly behind Greek. According to the budgets posted by Box Office Mojo, however, Greek is two times the winner: its $40 million budget was just over half of Killers' $70 million budget.

Bowing in sixth place, Marmaduke barked up $11.3 million. Movies about pets and especially talking pets are something of a kiddie movie mainstay, and it's never too much of a surprise when they succeed. I think I must have seen Homeward

Bound half a dozen times as a kid, and I'm not even an animal person.

Sci-fi/horror movie Splice debuted to $7.4 million, lower than expected. The movie was cast with a prestige film lead (Adrien Brody) and reviews revealed that the movie covers "chewy issues like bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science,

commitment problems between lovers and even Freudian-worthy family

dynamics." However, any arthouse audiences might have been scared away by the intensely frightful trailer. Which was it supposed to be, Warner Bros? A horror movie or a creepy Gattaca? Because I'll see the second but avoid the first.

With so many different genres of movies opening this weekend, the returning films fell heavily, in the 50-60% range. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time fell 53% to $14 million, and Sex and the City 2 plummetted 60% to $12.3 million.

Finishing just outside of the top ten, Raajneeti opened to $917,000 in 124 theatres, giving it a higher per-screen average than any film in the top ten. Bollywood-produced movies without all the musical numbers have been making a quiet splash at the box office, occasionally opening in the $1 million range. My Name is Khan opened in February to $1.9 million, for example.

This Friday, The A-Team will battle against The Karate Kid.

Four movies vying to unseat 'Shrek Forever After'

By Sarah Sluis

Even with four new wide releases hitting theatres this weekend, the biggest piece of the pie and number one spot is expected to go to Shrek Forever After. If it drops 40% again, as it did last week, it will still rack up $25 million, which could be a difficult number to beat.

Get Him to the Greek (2,696 theatres) is one of two comedies opening this weekend. Jonah Hill plays a record company intern tasked with bringing a boozing, fallen rocker (Russell Brand) from the U.K. to the Greek Theatre in L.A. Critic Ethan Alter praised the "marriage of performance styles," which "pits Brand's manic energy against the deadpan humor of Jonah Hill." I saw it earlier this week, and while it has some laugh-out-loud moments, it's very uneven. The director, Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), manages to shock and brings something new to the mass-comedy table, and I particularly enjoy his male characters, who are more sensitive "girl's guys" without being the butt of the jokes (Hill is very excited to watch "Gossip Girl" with his girlfriend to unwind). Here's hoping he can make a comedy that's strong the whole way through.

It didn't screen for critics, which is usually a bad sign. Killers (2,859 theatres) is an action comedy in the

style of Mr. & Mrs. Smith starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. The king of Twitter (Kutcher) paired with a star known for being the difficult one on the set of "Grey's Anatomy?" I'm giving the star power of these A-listers a B+. Killers is PG-13, while Get Him to the Greek is R, so underage audiences looking for a comedy may choose Killers, even with its older stars.

Family audiences who have already caught Shrek Forever After may choose Marmaduke (3,213 theatres). Critic Alter lamented that the movie

"follows the predictable beats of most disposable kiddie comedies," and includes "not just one but two references to the immortal Baha Men track 'Who Let the Dogs Out?'" Arf. Owen Wilson voices Marmaduke, his second dog-themed role after Marley & Me, but his voice adds little to the movie, according to Alter.

A quiet little sci-fi/horror movie that's been getting better reviews than would be expected (69% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), Splice (2,450 theatres) stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as

two geneticists that create something rather sinister. Over at the New York Times, Manohla Dargis called it a "pleasurably shivery, sometimes delightfully icky horror movie. Our critic, Maitland McDonagh, highlighted the pacing problems, and lamented that there's "an awful lot of wheel-spinning between the set-up and the admirably restrained climax."

On Monday, I'll be back to check in on the top ten, which should receive quite a shakeup this weekend.