'SHREK' PASSES $300 MILLION MARK.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Although overshadowed by the $93.7 million opening of ``Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,'' - a June record - DreamWorks' animated sensation ``Shrek 2'' made some history of its own over the weekend when it became the fastest movie to cross the $300 million mark, according to final box office figures released Monday.

``Shrek 2,'' featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas, took just 18 days to reach the industry milestone. The previous record-holder had been ``Spider-Man'' which took 22 days to reach $300 million during its theatrical release two years ago.

By adding $37.9 million to its ticket sales last weekend, ``Shrek 2'' is already the 15th highest-grossing movie in history with a cumulative take of $314.5 million to date and has plenty of momentum to carry it far up the all-time list of blockbusters.

Still, the film's weekend gross reflected a 47 percent drop from the week before when it set a Memorial Day weekend record and also a record for the highest grosses ever achieved by a movie in its second week of release.

DreamWorks distribution head Jim Tharp said the sequel to 2001's ``Shrek'' continues to play broadly and to every age group and ethnic group but was slowed somewhat by the arrival of the new ``Potter'' film.

``When another movie opens, it does impact your box office to some extent, and `Harry Potter' opening to over $90 million was a direct hit,'' Tharp said.

Also taking a hit was 20th Century Fox's ``The Day After Tomorrow.'' The disaster flick dropped 59.5 percent in ticket sales, not a good sign for its staying power. The film - which had the second-highest Memorial Day opening in history - grossed $27.9 million over the weekend for a cumulative gross of $128.5 million.

It was only three weeks ago that summer season business was running 25 percent behind last year's tally. Since then, ``Potter,'' ``Shrek 2'' and ``The Day After Tomorrow'' have had stupendous openings and brought people back into the megaplexes in record numbers. Soon to come is the June 30 bow of the much-anticipated ``Spider-Man 2,'' sure to be a major box office sensation.

``There's no question we could have a record-breaking summer,'' said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. ``The story on the summer is it ain't over till its over. Three weeks ago, the summer season was down 25 percent, now it's up. All it takes is 2-3 movies to so the fortunes change so quickly.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com