Poster of “Shrek Forever After”.

BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhuanet) — “Shrek Forever After,” the fourth and perhaps the final installment in the series about a jolly green ogre, took the lead in the weekend box office in North America, but fell short of expectations.

DreamWorks Animation SKG, producer of the movie, earned 71.25 million U.S. dollars during the movie’s first three days of release, far short of industry predictions of more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

The new movie opened “on the low end” of forecasts, said Anne Globe, DreamWorks Animation SKG’s head of worldwide marketing and consumer products.

But the latest “Shrek” installment still ranks as the fourth-biggest opening of all time among animated films, behind the previous two Shreks and “The Simpsons”, Globe added.

Of the previous “Shrek” films, “Shrek the Third” opened to 121.6 million U.S. dollars in 2007, “Shrek 2” earned 108 million dollars during its first weekend in 2004, and “Shrek” kicked off the franchise with 42 million dollars in 2001.

The installment was available for the first time in 3-D and IMAX 3-D, but it made less than 5 million dollars on IMAX screens, or 7 percent of the film’s weekend gross.

The movie also earned about 26 million U.S. dollars after opening in seven other countries. Russia accounted for 20 million U.S. dollars, narrowly beating “Avatar” to claim the country’s all-time record.

According to Globe, “Shrek Forever After” cost about 135 million dollars to make, and another 165 million dollars will be spent on the worldwide marketing. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/entertainment/2010-05/24/c_13311926.htm