Box Office Mojo reports that Shrek 2 is tearing up the box office. Estimates are that Shrek 2 has pulled in $104.3 million over the weekend and $125.2 million since opening on Wednesday. The film is already shaking up the record books as well. Assuming the estimates hold:
- widest opening release: opened on 4,163, besting X2’s previous record of 3,741
- widest release: bested Spider-Man’s 3,876 fourth weekend
- biggest Wednesday opening for an animated movie: bested Pokemon: The First Movie by $1.6 million
- biggest opening for an animated movie: bested Finding Nemo’s $70.3 million
- biggest single day gross: Saturday’s $44.8 million topped Spider-Man’s $43.6 million from Saturday May 4, 2002. BOM notes that Shrek 2’s “Saturday alone topped the first Shrek’s entire $42.3 million opening weekend”
- #3 top 5-day opening grosses: below The Matrix Reloaded and Spider-Man and knocking The Passion of the Christ and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King down a notch
- #2 biggest opening weekend: just $10 million short of Spider-Man’s opening weekend
- #9 fasted movie to reach $100 million: in just 5 days
Earlier this week DreamWorks head of distribution Jim Tharp “thought Shrek 2 was headed for a $60-65 million weekend as did most in the industry. ‘We just wanted to get above the Finding Nemo’s $70.3 million for the animation record'”. He now says that “this was well beyond any expectations”.
Box Office Mojo believes “Shrek 2 is now well-positioned to become the #1 movie of the summer… Going into the season, common wisdom had Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Spider-Man 2 as the movies to beat for the crown, but Shrek 2 is on a $300 million plus trajectory – a gross that seems too rosy even for Harry and Spidey prognostications”.
