Holiday filmgoers prefer 'Shrek' to 'Sex'

North American moviegoers preferred "Shrek Forever After," the first 3-D animated sequel about the gentle green ogre, to the "Sex and the City" sequel over the holiday weekend, final data showed on Tuesday.

The Memorial Day weekend showed "Shrek" on top for a second week, pulling in 57 million dollars according to Friday-to-Monday figures released by box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The movie beat out competition from new releases "Prince of Persia," a movie adapted from a video game series, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Kingsley which took 37.8 million dollars, and "Sex and the City 2," which came third with 36.8 million dollars in receipts.

The sequel movie following the love lives of the four New York City girlfriends at the heart of the hugely popular television show failed to woo the masses amid dismal reviews.

Down two spots to number four was "Iron Man 2," featuring Robert Downey Jr. as unconventional super hero Tony Stark, which took in 21 million dollars to bring its four-week earnings to a massive 279.6 million dollars.

"Robin Hood," starring Russell Crowe as the legendary English outlaw, slid to the number five spot with 13.4 million dollars in weekend box office receipts.

The romantic drama "Letters to Juliet" took sixth place with 7.5 million dollars, ahead of romantic comedy "Just Wright," with a duo of rapper-actors Queen Latifah and Common, at 2.8 million dollars.

In the number eight spot was "Date Night," starring comedy hot shots Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, which managed to rake in 2.3 million dollars in its eighth week in theaters.

Down to ninth place was Saturday Night Live-inspired "MacGruber," which fell three places in its second week of release, earning two million dollars.

Rounding out the top 10 was "How to Train Your Dragon," an animated children's film, which took in 1.5 million dollars, bringing its 10-week total to 213 million dollars.