DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third continued its stellar box office performance around the globe, with the cumulative worldwide gross now surpassing the $600 million mark. The history making U.S. opening of Shrek the Third -- the largest domestic debut ever for an animated film -- was duplicated in many key territories around the world, with #1 animated openings of all time in such countries as the U.K. (where it remains at the top of the box office charts for the second week of release), Russia, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore and others. With an estimated $35 million weekend take from 6,114 locations across 53 territories, the international tally now stands at $324 million -- and combining that with the current U.S. box office total of $316 million propels the lovable green ogre from the studio's most successful film franchise to a cumulative worldwide tally of $640 million. With the overwhelming success of the third installment, the Shrek franchise of films have combined to reach over $2 billion in global box office receipts to date making it one of the most successful franchises in movie history. The film is distributed globally by Paramount Pictures and Paramount Pictures International.

DreamWorks Animation's most successful franchise to date, the Shrek series began with the acquisition of William Steig's book in 1990, with the original Shrek going on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001. The sequel, Shrek 2, proved even more popular than the first, practically doubling the worldwide box office take of the original to become the third highest-grossing film of all time. Shrek the Third, the latest installment, recently wrote box office history by scoring the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film and continues to perform in its current global run. Shrek the Third recently crossed the $300 million dollar mark at the both the US and worldwide box office, with a global cumulative in excess of $600 million.