Shrek Forever After stays top of US box office

The first Shrek film was released in 2001

The fourth instalment in the Shrek franchise was the top film at the North American box office for the third weekend in a row.

Shrek Forever After took $25.3m (£17.5m) between Friday and Sunday, according to studio estimates.

The Dreamworks animation has made $183m (£126.8m) in total since it opened last month.

The highest new entry was comedy Get Him To The Greek, which debuted at number two with $17.4m (£12m).

The films sees Russell Brand reprise his role from Forgettting Sarah Marshall, as bad boy rock star Aldous Snow.

Takings down

Another new entry at number three was comedy Killers, starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher.

Overall, the box office was down 24% on the same time last year, according to box office tracker Hollywood.com.

Disney's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was at number four with takings of $13.9m (£9.6m), followed by Sex and the City 2, with $12.7m (£8.8m).

Family comedy Marmaduke was a new entry at number six.

Iron Man 2, which sees Robert Downey Jr return as playboy millionaire-turned-superhero Tony Stark, was at seven.

Science fiction thriller Splice, starring Adrien Brody, was another new entry at eight.

The chart was rounded out by Robin Hood and Letters to Juliet at nine and ten respectively, having both spent four weeks on the chart.