Seeing green

The third time was a charm once again as “Shrek the Third” trounced the opening-weekend record for an animated feature.

“Spider-Man 3” is slowing domestically but still headed for more than $900 million worldwide, which would be the highest total of the series.

The thriller “Disturbia” continues to hang tough. “Fracture” and “Hot Fuzz” are also holding up well, though with modest starts neither is likely to be a huge hit.

“Waitress,” the late Adrienne Shelly’s comedy starring Keri Russell, cracked the top 10 despite showing at only 116 theaters, building a strong following three weeks into its rollout.

Preliminary results (in millions) in the U.S. and Canada, based on studio projections:

*--* Movie (studio) 3-day Total (millions) Weeks gross (milli ons)

1 Shrek the Third (DreamWorks $122.0 $122.9 1 Animation/Paramount)

2 Spider-Man 3 (Sony) 28.5 281.9 3

3 28 Weeks Later (Fox Atomic) 5.2 18.6 2

4 Disturbia (Paramount) 3.7 71.3 6

5 Georgia Rule (Universal) 3.5 12.6 2

6 Fracture (New Line) 2.4 34.6 5

7 Delta Farce (Lions Gate) 1.8 6.1 2

8 The Invisible (Disney) 1.3 17.7 4

9 Hot Fuzz (Focus/Rogue) 1.3 21.1 5

10 Waitress (Fox Searchlight) 1.1 2.2 3

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Industry totals

*--* 3-day gross Change Year-to-date gross Change (in millions) from 2006 (in billions) from 2006 $182.0 +11.7% $3.29 +6.7%

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Note: A movie may be shown on more than one screen at each venue.

Source: Media by Numbers

Los Angeles Times