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Usually the above picture would make me sad, but Allison is actually napping again! For the record, this will all be related to the three-day weekend, as the four-day holiday numbers have of course not been released yet. As expected, Shrek: The Final Chapter was able to easily surpass Sex and the City 2 to take the weekend crown over Memorial Day weekend. The contest on Friday was close enough that Shrek: Forever After was able to capitalize on strong family matinee business as well as the HBO sequel’s downward plunge. In the end, the three day total is $43.3 million. That’s a drop of 38% from last weekend’s disappointing $70 million opening sprint. Since every single Shrek picture opened on the same weekend, the comparisons are easy to make. For reference, the first Shrek actually increased 0.4% over its second weekend, grossing $42.4 million in its second, holiday-inflated frame. The second picture set a record for the largest non-opening weekend of all-time, grossing $72.1 million and dropping just 33% (it’s still the third-biggest second weekend, behind The Dark Knight‘s $75 million and Avatar‘s $77 million second-weekends). The third picture was beset by poor word of mouth and the monstrous opening weekend of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($1114 million over Fri-Sun), plunging 56% from $121 million to $53 million in its second frame.

But the fourth Shrek picture was able to soften the drop, aided both by the much-smaller opening weekend (IE – more people to sample the film this weekend), as well as the relative audience disinterest in the opening pictures. The combined opening weekends of Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2 was around $62 million, or just over half what Pirates of the Caribbean 3 made by itself over its first three days. Where the fourth Shrek picture ends up at this point is an open question, but the impressive second-weekend means that the franchise has saved a token amount of face after the comparatively disappointing opening weekend. It will likely have just under $145 million by tomorrow, but it is badly trailing the prior sequels in total amount grossed by the tenth day ($133 million vs. $236 million for Shrek 2 and $203 million for Shrek the Third), and it in fact grossed less on its second Sunday ($14.9 million) than the first Shrek grossed on its tenth day ($18.1 million) nine years ago. Whether or not it can get to the $220 million plateau (so that all four of the highest-grossing Dreamworks cartoons would be Shrek pictures) or whether it fails to cross $200 million will largely depend on how well it weathers the direct demo-competition of Marmaduke next weekend.

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