Four new movies may have opened wide last weekend, but none of them could topple Shrek Forever After as the box-office leader. It was the third consecutive weekend win for the green ogre, who won by default, given the lack of blockbuster competitioin. Ordinarily the first weekend of June is an important one for the studios. Not so this year, as ticket sales dropped 22 percent from last June's first weekend and produced the lowest total for the weekend since 1997. With $25.5 million added to its total for the weekend, the fourth Shrek movie has now earned $183.2 million after 17 days. But Shrek the Third had earned $255.9 million over the same period in 2007, and that was without the benefit of 3D premium pricing. Coming in second was Get Him to the Greek , which earned $17.6 million -- about the same amount as the progenitor movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, collected in its opening in 2008. Killers , which was not screened in advance for critics and received atrocious reviews when they saw it, came in third with an all-right $15.8 million. Another newcomer, Marmaduke , went to the dogs with $11.6 million. The artsy horror flick Splice , the fourth new release, took in only $7.4 million. Meanwhile, audiences kicked sand at Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, which dropped 53 percent and earned $14 million in its second week, and Sex And The City 2 , which fell 60 percent, with 12.3 million in its second week.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date) 1. Shrek Forever After, Paramount/Dreamworks Animation, $25,486,465, 3 Wks. ($183,229,453); 2. Get Him to the Greek, Universal, $17,570,955, (New); 3. Killers, Lionsgate, $15,837,266, (New); 4. Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, Disney, $14,019,131, 2 Wks. ($59,621,721); 5. S ex and the City 2, Warner Bros., $12,344,303, 2 Wks. ($73,128,387); 6. Marmaduke, 20th Century Fox, $11,599,661, (New); 7. Iron Man 2, Paramount, $7,918,708, 5 Wks. ($291,429,870); 8. Splice, Warner Bros., $7,385,277, (New); 9. Robin Hood, Universal, $5,366,940, 4 Wks. ($94,496,010); 10. Letters to Juliet, Summit, $3,036,367, 4 Wks. ($43,337,836).

08/06/2010