New Openers Disappoint at Box Office Over Memorial Day Weekend

Two pictures with high expectations debut to relatively flat openings. Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia came in below expectations as Shrek Forever After won for a second straight weekend. For the three days Shrek took in $43.3 million, SATC2 $32.1 million, and Prince of Persia $30.2 million. They’ll get the benefit of the Monday holiday tacked on as well but for a Memorial Day frame at the box office it was one of the slowest in 15 years.

Shrek Forever After fell 39% from last weekend which was a decent hold for the movie which disappointed with its opening. That could be attributed more to a lack of competition than word-of-mouth as the series showed serious weakness and audience response has been lukewarm at best. The increased prices that come with 3D tickets are also providing it a boost with 55% of its earnings coming from 3D screens.

Taking in the $32 million brought Sex and the City 2‘s total gross to $46.3 million since it’s mid-week release. That is a big drop-off from the original which made $57 million in just its first weekend. While it holds the same demo (90% of which exit polled are female) the sequel has received less enthusiasm from fans. Rotten Tomatoes has the original at 49% with the sequel at 15%. This one may have buried the series given its $100 million budget and dissipating support. A third would appear to be much less likely now.

At one time Prince of Persia was thought of as potentially being the next Pirates of the Caribbean. As release neared it became apparent that the excitement just wasn’t there for it which the $30 million opening proves. The movie was mediocre (see my review) and reviewers were split on it. Audience reaction has been mildly positive but nothing that would drive word-of-mouth and turn it into a franchise. The $200 million budget (which I’m not sure where all that money was spent after seeing the movie) makes a decent opening look like a bomb however strength overseas will save it. In fact it has already made nearly $100 million just overseas bringing its worldwide gross to $125 million.