Five challengers came out of the woodwork this weekend to take on the big green ogre, and none of them were able to topple the beast from atop the weekend box office. After holding off Sex And The City 2 last weekend, Shrek enjoys another weekend in the sun, picking up another $25.3 million, despite a wide variety of challenges from across a variety of genres. Even a weakened Shrek brand is pretty formidable.

Of the weekend's releases, the top performer was Get Him To The Greek. The scene-stealing Russell Brand character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow, is back and carrying the weight of his own movie, alongside the modern day Chris Farley, Jonah Hill. The two of them have managed to turn the drugged-out rock star premise into a pretty good opening box office of $17.4 million, which is a very solid second place

Third place went to another high profile new release, the junior Mr. And Mrs. Smith actioner Killers. Despite having gossip magazine king and queen Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, Killers debuted to only $16.1 million. I'm actually a little surprised it didn't do worse, given how much bad press has surrounded the film's incredibly tired premise.

Dropping to fourth place from third last week is Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. If they're looking to make this a tent pole franchise, they're doing it wrong. The movie picked up $13.9 million this weekend, and has quietly picked up just under $60 million stateside, which is no way to scrape together a series. Maybe they should've saved the Colon Subtitle shtick for the second one.

Rounding out the top five is Sex And The City 2. The consensus from fans is that it's good, but not as good as the first one if you're positive, and that it's just plain awful if you're negative. Given that I hated the TV show, I'd be more inclined to junk the whole franchise. Still, the flick's second weekend bowed to $12.65 million bones, and has settled at $75 million for its opening fortnight. Not bad, but far below the original's pace.

Marmaduke is shaping up to be kind of a dud for Fox. Owen Wilson's voice talents notwithstanding, the $50 million picture bowed to only $11.3 million. Good for sixth place, but still not very good. I guess kids won't see just any old talking animal picture after all, as Marm was much more like Underdog and not at all like Alvin And The Chipmunks or Garfield.

Seventh place went to Iron Man 2, which picked up another $7.78 million over the weekend, just nudging Splice (reviewed here) down to eighth. Splice debuted to $7.45 million, which is kind of disappointing, but I felt that the movie ended up being marketed wrong anyway. It's a little too science-heavy for a big dumb horror, and a little too dumb to be a brainiac movie. It's kind of a classy B-science flick.

Speaking of disappointments, Robin Hood, the $200 million flick from Universal bringing Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe back together, falls to ninth from fifth last week, picking up $5.1 million. So far, the flick has grossed less than $95 million in the US, which makes it one of the biggest disappointments of the summer season so far.

Letters To Juliet rounds out the weekend, taking tenth place with $3 million.

Coming out next week is a movie aimed squarely at the Shrek audience, in the form of the newly-remade Karate Kid, teaming Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, son of Will. Will he have his dad's box office clout? Remains to be seen. Also coming out next week is another slice of nostalgia remake pie in the form of The A-Team. It's one of the more interesting trailers of the summer thus far, and just might be a worthy big screen outing, even without Mr. T's irreplaceable presence. I pity the fool who bets against the A-Team.