THE new film Shrek the Third, from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., made $122 million in weekend sales, breaking the record for animated films held by the last Shrek 2.<$>Shrek was the only new film to open in wide release in North America, in 4,122 theatres, and unseated Sony Corp.’s>Spider-Man 3<$>, which had dominated US and Canadian theatres since its May 4 release, Media By Numbers LLC said in a statement.

The film beat the sales estimate of $95 million to $110 million made by SMH Capital analyst David Miller in a May 18 report. The film needed “to clear $80 million” for DreamWorks Animation shares to avoid “meaningful downside pressure come Monday morning”, he wrote. Its predecessor took in $108 million in its debut.

Spider-Man 3$>fell to second place with sales of $28.5 million despite expanding to more screens. The movie, which set opening-day and opening-weekend box-office records, has had sales of $281.9 million in the US and Canada.ABC scores milestone winsIT was a milestone week in the ratings for ABC, which won a tight three-way race for prime-time supremacy and saw its evening newscast win by its widest margin since 2001.Season finales for Desperate Housewives aGrey’s Anatomy helped ABC to its first weekly ratings win of the season, except for when it broadcast the Academy Awards. ABC also hasn’t won during the May ratings “sweeps” since 2000.

It was enough to send Fox into third place last week, with American I<$>not as dominant as it has been in the past. Fox won among the 18-to-49-year-old audience it craves, however.

Second-place CBS scored with two prime-time specials featuring soon-to-retire game show host Bob Barker. Each brought in around 14 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Charles Gibson is starting to record some eye-opening numbers at Worldws<$>. The ABC newscast, which started out the year a consistent second to NBC’s Nightlews<$>, won last week by nearly one million viewers - a significant number in a usually close competition.R&B battle at top of UK singles chartsR&B singer Rihanna went straight in a number one in the British pop charts on Sunday, knocking Beyoncé and Shakira further down the top 10.Rihanna clinched the top spot with herack Umbrella featuring rapper Jay-Z, according to the Official UK Charts Company, which compiles the weekly pop countdown.

Meanwhile, in the album charts, three new entries took the top spots.

American band Linkin Park took top place with their Minutes to Might <$>album.

Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright was at number two with Release the Stars, while Welsh rock band Funeral for a Friend went in at number th with Tales Don’t Tell Themselves.

Back in the singles charts, Beauul Liar<$>, a duet by Beyoncé and Shakira, slipped one place to third, while Maroon 5’s Make Me Wonder moved up to second from 19.

Snow Patr#8217;s Signal Fire <$>was also a high climber, moving up to fourth from 17th.

California pop band Hellogoodbye rose to fifth place with Here (In Your Arms), New York hip hop group Gym Class Heroes slipped two places toxth with Cupid’s Chokehold, and R&B singer Akon dropped to seven with Don&#7;t Matter<$>.

Britain’s Eurovision entry Schooch maintained a top ten placing with their airline-themed song Flying the Flag (For You), but dropped three places to eight.

Also making upe top ten, Give It To Me, a collaboration by Timberland, Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, slipped to nine from seven, and Booty Luv moved up to ten from 25 with their house number Shine.