Last week, we predicted that Shrek Forever After could hold on for a third week at the top even if it fell 40% because none of the four major releases being planned had guaranteed wide audience appeal.  Almost exactly as we stated, Shrek did land in the winner's circle once again, with a drop that was close to what we thought.  Falling 41.2% in its third week, Shrek Forever After managed almost $25.5 million at the box office, easily taking the top spot.

Among the four major new releases, none set the world on fire, but Get Him to the Greek proved to be the victor.  Even better for its distributor, Universal Studios, is that, although Greek's $17.6 million take is relatively modest, the movie's production budget was only $40 million.  Now, this means that the movie needs about $80 million just to break even, which this will not do, but it will still fare better than Ashton Kutcher's latest, Killers, which only openend with $15.8 million against a $75 million budget – this puts the film's breakeven at $150 millon, which it will not get anywhere near. 

Kutcher is plugged into the center of Hollywood and seems to be everywhere, but his track record at the box office has not reflected the hype around him at all.  No movie that he's ever been the star of has grossed more than $80 million domestically – this being 2008's What Happens in Vegas, which ended its domestic run at $80.3 million.  However, it did do better overseas, which allowed it to amass a final global box office of about $220 million.  The difference was that the concept and tone of Vegas was a lot more clear to audiences as compared to Killers, and Vegas has the added advantage of costing only $35 million to produce.  This meant that Vegas was able to make back its production cost based only on its domestic box office.

The latest comic strip animal to leap to the big screen as a CGI adaptation, Marmaduke, came in below most other entries in this sub-genre such as the Garfield films or Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Any sequel to Marmaduke is likely to go straight to video.  Adrien Brody's scifi/horror flick, Splice, was dead on arrival and will not have a shot at the $60 million it would take to recoup its $30 million production budget.

Only two new releases next week, both remakes of stale concepts in a season overcrowded with such remakes and sequels: The A-Team and The Karate Kid.  We wouldn't be surprised to see each one come in at over $20 million, but doubt either has any sort of real staying power.  No, the box office won't really get the kick in the pants that it needs until the weekend of June 18-20 when Toy Story 3 –admittedly yet another sequel, but one that seems to be more highly anticipated – opens.  Hopefully, this will prove to be the go-to movie for families that Shrek Forever After should have been.

Here are the domestic box office actuals for the weekend of June 4-6, 2010: