娱乐英语新闻:"Shrek Forever After" tops N America box office for 3rd weekend

LOS ANGELES, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Fending off the onslaught of four new openers, "Shrek Forever After" managed to maintain the top position at North America's box offices for the third weekend in a row, the box office authority said on Sunday.

The fourth and final installment in DreamWorks Animation's series, "Shrek Forever After" is expected to sell 25.3 million U.S. dollars worth of tickets in the United States and Canada this weekend, down only 42%, to remain as the top dog.

As the first movie since "Alice In Wonderland" to pull off the three-week trick, the Paramount animated film is on track to earn 183 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales in three weeks of play, according to projections by the North America box office authority.

Four new openers made their debut over the weekend, but they have all performed on a lackluster note.

Poster of "Shrek Forever After".

Premiering at No.2 is Universal's young adult comedy "Get Him to the Greek," which is expected to take in 17.4 million U.S. dollars in its opening dates. In another collaboration among writer/director Nicholas Stoller and stars Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, "Get Him to the Greek" is a spin-off sequel from Stoller's 2008 film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Hill plays an entirely new character while Brand reprises his character Aldous Snow. The film has received generally positive reviews and is widely considered among the year's funniest comedies.

Debuting at No.3 is Lionsgate's spy romantic comedy "Killers," with an estimated take of 16.1 million U.S. dollars. Starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl and took 75 million U.S. dollars to make, it drew wide criticisms from the critics over the weekend. However, the Saturday's gross has increased 11 percent, which is evident of its good playability, the North America box office authority said.

The No.4 and No.5 are holdovers from the previous weeks.

Disney's "Prince of Persia" which debuted last week is projected to garner 13.8 million U.S. dollars this weekend for a total of 59.5 million U.S. dollars in two weeks.

Warner Bros.' "Sex and the City 2" starring Sarah Jessica Parker and her three partners in romantic crime, will sell 12.6 million U.S. dollars this weekend, for a total of 75 million U.S. dollars in two weeks.

As the rest of four openers, Fox's "Marmaduke" and Warner Bros. ' horror/thriller "Splice" were sixth and eighth, taking in 11.3 million and 7.5 million U.S. dollars respectively.