Shrek 2 - Yes, Shrek 2 - Returned To The Box Office Charts Over The Weekend
No, it's not 2004, but Shrek and Donkey are partying like it is. "Shrek 2," the beloved hit sequel to the original DreamWorks animated classic, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — next month, to be more exact — and Universal Pictures decided to celebrate by re-releasing the film in theaters over the weekend. While it didn't make a fortune or anything, the movie did end up making its way back into the top ten on the box office charts.
Playing on over 1,500 screens, "Shrek 2" pulled in $1.35 million over the weekend, which was just enough to give it the number nine spot on the charts. That put it just ahead of "SUGA | Agust D Tour 'D-Day' The Movie" ($990,000) and just behind "The Long Game" ($1.39 million), both of which were newcomers in theaters. It was Alex Garland's buzzy "Civil War" ($26 million) that took the lion's share of attention, landing the number one spot and dethroning "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire." But Shrek and his pals were, indeed, in the mix once again for the first time in a long time.
The last time a non-spinoff "Shrek" movie charted at the box office was when "Shrek Forever After" hit theaters back in 2010, opening to an impressive $70.8 million en route to a $756.2 million global finish. Since then, DreamWorks has been focused elsewhere though, with other franchises taking precedence. Speaking of which, "Kung Fu Panda 4" continued its impressive run over the weekend, pulling in another $5.5 million and passing the $450 million mark worldwide. DreamWorks, as a result, ended up with two movies in the top ten.
Shrek and Donkey take a victory lap
Looking at the slightly larger picture, "Shrek 2" posted a pretty lousy per-screen average of just $892. That's very bad for a wide release and, if this were a new movie, we'd be speaking about it with a radically different tone. But this was more of a "what it makes, it makes" situation because, frankly, we're talking about a wildly successful sequel that didn't need to make another dime to cement its legacy. Any money made was icing on the cake at this point.
During its original run 20 years ago, "Shrek 2" pulled in an astounding $928.9 million worldwide, becoming the top-grossing movie of 2004 worldwide. It was also nearly double the original movie's $492 million take. This helped cement DreamWorks as a meaningful competitor to Disney in the animation space that was very much here to stay. Given that Universal has been eating Disney's lunch as of late at the box office when it comes to animation, in no small part thanks to DreamWorks (as well as Illumination), this movie's significance can't be ignored. So, if nothing else, this serves as a bit of a victory lap for the film.
Whether or not it's enough to finally get "Shrek 5" moving in the right direction remains to be seen. All we can say for sure is that "Pulls in Boots: The Last Wish" ($485 million worldwide) was a very successful spinoff. There is reason to believe that Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and the rest of the gang returning to the big screen would do big business.
"Shrek 2" is back in theaters now for a limited time.