From what I've read, Robin Hood needs to break $300 million worldwide in order to be in the black.

It's already made half that. RH won't be a massive hit, but it won't break the bank either. Questionable ROI, but there you have it.

Also Shrek 4 had the advantage of 3D and Imax (higher ticket prices) and a short run time and still did that bad.

Happens, Shrek 3 was terrible.

They might be considered a bomb by some standards but, nonetheless, most have made money. Not denying that they aren't awful sometimes of course. That goes without saying.

Superstar - Budget: 14 mil - Gross: 35 mil
Roxbury - Budget: 17 mil - Gross: 30 mil

Those both seem to be pretty decent hits, doubling their budget.

Wayne's World 2 - Budget: 40 mile - Gross: 48 mil

Wayne's World 2 is 59% fresh on rotten tomatoes so I wouldn't really consider it well reviewed.

Gross Net. A $15 million movie that grossed $20 million is a moneyloser.

In rough box-office numbers, you want to triple the budget to be in the black. The budget doesn't cover distribution and advertising costs.

By that standard not many movies make it into the black until DVD comes along.

Didn't see Shrek 4 as I, and apparently a lot of others, thought Shrek 3 was horrible. The franchise was beating a dead horse with the third one, this one only proves it's past time to pull the plug.

I went opening day and there were a total of 5 people in the theater (250 seats). Even when I went for a Robin Hood matinee, there must have been 75-80 people (650 seats).

Scary thing is I went to see Shrek the Third in its third weekend and there were more people on a freaking Thursday than Forever After

I even saw Shrek 2 - 3 months after release at a dollar theater and that was 50% full (300-350 seats).

You are correct. But its generally the rule to follow.

While Shrek won't put up the numbers of it's previous incarnation, worldwide numbers should make it profitable.

I think the number would be higher than you think when you factor in worldwide grosses as opposed to domestic, and when you look at smaller films as opposed to just the mega-blockbusters. Also, when it comes to those kinds of movies, tie-ins and merchandising are going to significantly ease that weight.

Seriously?!? Uggggh. What a piece of shit movie. Tim Burton should be ashamed. Rich, but ashamed.

I have heard that while worldwide grosses help ease the pain of a film's cost, studios only get a good profit from domestic grosses, hence movies that made boatloads of money due to overseas grosses like Troy and Last Samurai and considered disappointments.

That's because most studios sell off international distribution rights.

Not really; or rather, they don't sell off international rights to the big-release tentpole blockbusters, since they know these make major coin overseas. Smaller players -- the Weinsteins, Lions Gate, etc -- are more likely to sell off international distribution in order to hedge their bets.

IM2's lead over IM1 during the same time frame is starting to drop more and more. About 2 weeks ago, it was up about $33 mil at the same release point. Now it's down to about $28 mil. IM1's 3rd weekend drop was about 38%. Part 2 was 49%. I think the final US gross will be alot closer than anyone would have predicted prior to the sequel's opening. It'll still do much better overseas, but I really thought this film was a lock at $375 mil and had a great shot at over $400 mil.

I'm sure Paramount will still be happy with the final numbers.

It's now $996.5 mil worldwide. I can't believe that it's going to pass $1 billion.

Yeah, especially since it was fairly well advertised that Disney would employ a less than 12 week threatrical-to-DVD release window, prior to the film even coming out.

Actuals:
1 N Shrek Forever After P/DW $70,838,207 - 4,359 - $16,251 $70,838,207 $165 1
2 1 Iron Man 2 Par. $26,361,258 -49.3% 4,177 -213 $6,311 $251,026,061 $200 3
3 2 Robin Hood Uni. $18,769,220 -48.0% 3,505 +2 $5,355 $66,615,690 $200 2
4 3 Letters to Juliet Sum. $9,006,266 -33.5% 2,975 +7 $3,027 $27,332,507 - 2
5 4 Just Wright FoxS $4,290,431 -48.2% 1,831 - $2,343 $14,697,071 - 2
6 N MacGruber Uni. $4,043,495 - 2,551 - $1,585 $4,043,495 $10 1
7 7 Date Night Fox $2,913,504 -23.8% 1,869 -612 $1,559 $90,748,818 $55 7
8 6 A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) WB (NL) $2,321,388 -50.2% 2,125 -950 $1,092 $59,967,500 $35 4
9 5 How to Train Your Dragon P/DW $1,901,211 -62.0% 1,751 -869 $1,086 $210,990,918 $165 9
10 N Kites Relbig. $958,673 - 208 - $4,609 $958,673 - 1
11 8 The Back-Up Plan CBS $942,930 -60.5% 1,079 -1,418 $874 $35,919,707 $35 5
12 12 Babies Focus $725,266 -27.2% 395 -148 $1,836 $5,102,395 - 3
13 11 Death at a Funeral (2010) SGem $537,573 -52.8% 561 -501 $958 $41,463,030 $21 6
14 9 Furry Vengeance Sum. $531,018 -76.3% 1,369 -1,326 $388 $16,131,784 $35 4
15 18 Alice in Wonderland (2010) BV $484,757 +10.1% 411 +8 $1,179 $332,194,266 $200 12
16 20 The Secret in Their Eyes SPC $446,549 +21.2% 141 +38 $3,167 $2,692,960 - 6
17 17 City Island Anch. $423,423 -3.9% 234 -19 $1,810 $4,191,605 $6 10

How to Train Your Dragon has had a phenomenal run considering it had what analysts called a "disappointing" opening.

Boy, I just read an article where they estimated that this would take in 112 million this week. 72 million is very bad. It's not going to look that bad in the end when you figure in foreign gross but there won't be another film which is great.

Dreamworks stock dropped 10.8% after the news.

Dreamworks stock also dropped a lot when Dragon opened with a lower box office take than expected. Then it recovered the loss when it became clear that WOM would make the movie quite successful after all. Now it's back down because of Shrek. Making movies is a tough business!

Can't say that I'm disappointed that this might really be the last Shrek. But they were never intended for my demographic: crotchety old guy.

I'm curious to think that this is because a lot of people were just burnt out after the (terrible) third outing. I honestly thought the second and third films were just lackluster follow-ups compared to the (weak) first, so I don't plan on seeing the fourth entry anytime soon. I wouldn't be surprised if others have had the same cold approach to this outing. Example: look at the box office take of Saw VI. Granted, Paranormal Activity was kicking ass at the box office during that time; however, Saw VI had more than a 50% drop in terms of total gross from its previous outing. Saw IV put a bad taste in most fans' mouths and the remainder just had enough and called it quits after Saw V.

It's also interesting to see DreamWorks citing Shrek's disappointing weekend due to high 3D prices and a lot of audience members chose to go 2D.

Kind of surprised about MacGruber. Obviously, I wasn't expecting huge numbers, but figured it would be over 10 million.

The whole jacking up 3D prices will backfire in the long run

It's especially interesting considering how Katzenberg was hyping 3D just last week...

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/intellig...testing-ground

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