娱乐英语新闻:"Shrek Forever After," king of the box office for 2nd straight weekend

LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Two highly anticipated movies, "Sex and the City 2" and "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" which set in the Middle Eastern deserts debuted this weekend but failed to step onto the top of the North America box office, leaving 3-D animated fantasy-family film "Shrek Forever After" triumphant for a second straight weekend.

The fourth and allegedly the final installment about the good- natured ogre, "Shrek 4" garnered another 43.3 million U.S.dollars in sales in its second-week run in movie theaters, thus making the Paramount/DreamWorks Animation film crossed the 100 million U.S. dollars mark, the North America box office authority said, basing on projected statistics over the weekend which started in Friday.

Poster of "Shrek Forever After".

"Sex and the City 2", a sequel to the 2008 Warner Bros. romantic/blue comedy adapted from a popular HBO television series, opened in second place with 32.1 million U.S.dollars in sales. Screening on 5,700 screens at 3,285 sites in the United States and Canada, the R-rated film has received overwhelmingly negative reviews.Stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Chris Noth reprised their roles from the previous film and TV series.

Walt Disney Pictures'"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" premiered in third place with 30.1 million U.S.dollars in movie ticket sales. An adventure based on a popular video game which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world,"Prince" was criticized by analysts for its incoherent marketing and the lack of any wow moments of character or spectacle. The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Jake Gyllenhaal,Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley.

Rounding out the top five are:

-- No.4: "Iron Man 2," Paramount/Marvel,16 million this weekend, 274.6 million U.S.dollars for three weeks;

-- No.5: "Robin Hood",Universal,10.3 million U.S.dollars this weekend, and 83 million U.s.dollars for two weeks.