Cinefantastique Online

In the final weekend of summer box office, SHREK THE THIRD was the top film in the overseas market, thanks to a strong opening in Italy. The film earned $17.2-million, raising its international B.O. to $474-million. The SHREK sequel was one of three “thre-quel” movies to do big business that turned this season into a strong one for Hollywood; the other two were SPIDER-MAN 3 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END:

The frame capped a sizzling summer offshore as the … three-quels turned in solid numbers — far above the same frame a year ago when “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” led with $11.6 million. And it was a performance exemplifying the entire summer, which saw sturdy grosses from new iterations of “Shrek,” “Spider-Man,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Harry Potter,” “Die Hard,” “Fantastic Four” and “Ocean’s Thirteen” along with impressive contributions from “Transformers,” “The Simpsons Movie” and “Ratatouille.”