At Dreamworks Pictures, they must be doing a We Beat Disney dance. Can’t you see it? Champagne pouring amidst the cubicles, post-its arranged into streamers, bad disco blasting, CGI geeks partying with suits, iPhones capturing incriminating poses…
Why the adulation? Check out the box office estimates for the weekend so far:
1. Shrek Forever After – $43.3 mill, in its second weekend
2. Sex and the City 2 – $46.3 mill, boosted by a Thursday opening
3. Prince of Persia – $30.2 mill
Dreamworks’ tired, unnecessary fourth Shrek movie, in its holdover weekend, beat Disney’s latest potential franchise starter, Prince of Persia, which the studio has hyped heavily for a couple of months now. And just to make it sweeter, Dreamworks’ over the hill ogre also beat the Warner Bros/New Line/HBO/Village Roadshow Sex pic.
Yep, they’re partying like it’s 2001 at Dreamworks – the year the first Shrek released and made the studio a player in animation to begin with. Live it up, Katzenberg and company. You deserve it. Uh, sort of.
The box office returns don’t speak as much about Shrek Forever After‘s strengths as they do about the weaknesses of the other movies in release right now. Let’s face it – Summer TwentyTen has bitten the big one so far. Iron Man 2 wasn’t bad but didn’t satisfy for long. And really, there’s been nothing else of note at all. Prince of Persia had a shot at giving the season a jolt but failed badly. And even those who like SATC 2 can’t deny that the only audiences for the movie are women and gay men who already liked the show – which has now been off the air for 6 years.
So Dreamworks, you have every reason to celebrate. After all, Shrek Forever After follows on the heels of your wildly over-achieving How to Train Your Dragon, which is still hanging in at the #10 spot on the b.o. chart.
Have a drink on me. Only, enjoy it while you can. Because Toy Story 3 releases on the 18th. So by the 19th, no one will remember the name of your ogre.
