The sand-blown men and women of “Sex and the City 2″ and “Prince of Persia” were offered a rude awakening at the box office this weekend, as the mean green ogre known as “Shrek Forever After” barreled its way to a first-place finish for the second week in a row.

“Shrek Forever After” won first place with little trouble during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, taking home a gold medal worth $55.7 million. The film suffered a minor 21.3 percent drop from its $70.8 million performance last weekend, calming some fears that the “Shrek” franchise had lost its green sheen as a box-office powerhouse. After two weekends in theaters, the “Shrek” sequel has earned $145.5 million domestically and $25.7 million overseas for a budget-surpassing $171.3 global haul.

The success of “Shrek” came at the expense of the weekend’s two new major releases: Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Sex and the City 2″ and Walt Disney’s “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.” Both projects entered the weekend with their fair share of selling points — “Prince of Persia” boasts Jake Gyllenhaal’s star power as well as a built-in audience from its video game source material, while “Sex and the City” has a well-established fanbase. But neither film could hold a candle against “Shrek,” settling for second- and third-place finishes worth $37.8 million and $37.1 million, respectively.

There are silver linings for both films, however. In the case of “Persia,” the movie enjoyed an impressive $95.5 million showing at the foreign box office. For “Sex,” the Sarah Jessica Parker-starring sequel earned $51.4 million from its Thursday release through the Monday holiday, falling short of its 2008 predecessor’s opening weekend by only $5 million.

-MTV