SHREK FOREVER AFTER, the "winner" of a loser movie weekend.

Memorial Day weekend, while traditionally one of the most profitable holidays at the box office, presented the lowest ticket sales in 15 years and experts are blaming it on the films. SHREK FOREVER AFTER managed to beat out its competitors like SEX AND THE CITY 2 and Disney's PRINCE OF PERSIA. Altogether, however, low numbers of ticket sales indicate that audiences weren't stoked about any of their options. "The audience is not absolutely thrilled with the movies in the marketplace and they're voting with their absence now," explains Paul Dergarabedian, of Hollywood.com. With critics panning most of the new releases, who could blame them? (more).

Guillermo del Toro announced to fans yesterday that he has abandoned his (now two-year) project to direct J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, a two-part prequel to Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Disappointed bloggers are already suspecting del Toro was forced to quit due to budget issues, although the director's personal statement on the matter blames production delays. "In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming THE HOBBIT, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," del Toro wrote on a LORD OF THE RINGS fansite. "After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures," he said (more).