Shrek the Third

Shrek and Princess Fiona are to succeed King Harold, but Shrek's attempts to serve as the regent during Harold's medical absence end in disaster, as he lacks interest in being king of Far Far Away. With his dying breath, Harold tells Shrek of another heir: his nephew and Fiona's cousin, Arthur "Artie" Pendragon. Meanwhile, Prince Charming vows to avenge the death of his mother, the Fairy Godmother, and become king. He goes to the Poison Apple tavern and persuades the fairy tale villains to fight for their "happily ever after", and help him take over Far Far Away.

Shrek sets out to retrieve Artie with help from Donkey and Puss in Boots. As they sail away, Fiona reveals to Shrek that she is pregnant. Shrek is horrified because he believes he is incapable of raising children. The trio journey to Worcestershire Academy, an elite magical boarding school, where they discover that Artie is a scrawny 16-year-old outcast.

After the success of Shrek 2 in May 2004, DreamWorks Animation (DWA) CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg planned a five-film arc that began with Shrek (2001) and would conclude with a fifth installment. DreamWorks hired screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Doc Hollywood and How the Grinch Stole Christmas fame) to write the screenplay of the film and Jon Zack, who wrote The Perfect Score, came on board as a consultant. Unlike the first two films, the film was not directed by Andrew Adamson due to his occupation with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Adamson was still involved as an executive producer, and was giving advice approximately every four months on the state of the film. Shrek the Third was instead directed by Chris Miller, a story artist on the first film and a head of story on the second, and co-directed by Raman Hui, a supervising animator on the first two films, with Miller and producer Aron Warner also writing the script with Price and Seaman.

Shrek the Third opened in 4,122 North American cinemas on May 18, 2007, grossing $38 million on its first day, which was the biggest opening day for an animated film at the time. The film would hold this record until Toy Story 3 surpassed it three years later in 2010. It grossed a total of $121.6 million in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an animated film, and the second-highest opening for a film in the United States in 2007, behind Spider-Man 3. It held the animated opening weekend record for nine years until it was surpassed by Finding Dory's $135.1 million debut in 2016. At the time, its opening weekend was the third-highest of all time domestically, after Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Shrek the Third grossed $322.7 million in the United States, and $485.6 million overseas, bringing its cumulative total to $808.3 million. The film was the fourth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 2007, and the second-highest-grossing film in the United States that year. In addition, it was the highest-grossing animated film of 2007, and the third-highest-grossing animated film ever, trailing only behind Finding Nemo and Shrek 2. The film sold an estimated 46,907,000 tickets in North America.