Third Shrek movie sets animation record

May 21, 2007

Los Angeles - The third Shrek movie has set a new box office record for an animated movie with $120 million at the box office in its first weekend on release in the US and Canada.

The third Shrek movie has set a new box office record for an animated movie with $120 million at the box office in its first weekend on release in the US and Canada.

Shrek the Third has surpassed the $108 million taken by Shrek 2 in 2004.

It has also knocked Spider-Man 3 off the top of the current North American box office chart.

But it could not match Spider-Man 3's overall first-weekend record, which the super-hero set with takings of $148 million two weeks ago.

Instead, Shrek becomes the third-biggest opening in US box office history, just behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which took $136 million last summer.

Animation company DreamWorks said the figure was "significantly beyond our expectations".

But Shrek's position at the top of the charts is likely to end next week, when the third instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End makes its debut.

"I think we could see more records being broken," said Paul Dergarabedian of box office analysts Media By Numbers.

"Both Spider-Man and Shrek exceeded expectations, so who knows with Pirates? The marketplace is just exploding right now," he added.

Elsewhere in this week's charts, zombie thriller 28 Weeks Later dropped to number three, taking $5 million, while the final film by murdered actress Adrienne Shelly - Waitress - entered at number 10.

Overall takings were up by 12% from this time last year to $173 million.