Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz teamed up to steal the box office crown from Brad Pitt on Wednesday as the much-anticipated animated sequel Shrek 2 opened to the tune of $11,768,000 in its first day of release. That figure, which included grosses from midnight shows on Tuesday night at select theaters, came from an ultrawide 3,737 theaters across North America.

With most children still in school on Wednesday, and having class the next morning, the gross was a solid figure for a mid-week toon bow in May - a rare event. DreamWorks will widen the release to a record 4,163 theaters on Friday becoming the first studio to break the 4,000 playdate threshold. With school out over the weekend, the distributor is expecting much larger crowds on Saturday and Sunday.

The opening day audience for Shrek 2 was 60% family, according to studio distribution president Jim Tharp, and the non-family segment was equally split between males and females as well as those over and under age 25 indicating broad appeal. Exit polls showed that over 90% found the PG-rated film to be "excellent" or "very good" and 82% said they would definitely recommend it. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive for Shrek 2 as they were with the original which opened this very weekend in 2001.

For a review of Shrek 2 and its soundtrack, visit The Chief Report.

Last Updated: May 20, 2004 at 1:45PM EST

Written by Gitesh Pandya