How far can corporate greed alone carry a franchise? According to DreamWorks, five movies. JoBlo has picked up a story from the LA Times which says that’s where the Shrek series ends.

Pretending as if going five movies is all about a story they’ve been planning all along and has absolutely nothing with the ridiculous amount of money they’re making, a DreamWorks spokesman says, “The story itself has five chapters. Based on the success of the first three films, at the very least, the next one, 'Shrek 4,' is warranted.” The great thing about that quote is that there’s at least some hope that they’ll give it up after the fourth one. In order for that to happen though, it’ll have to be an Evan Almighty flop. Since it’s Shrek, that might seem impossible, but if you’ve seen how absolutely awful the third one is, then you know it isn’t. Come on, even as stupid as most American audiences are, they can’t possibly have liked that pile of crap. Shrek 3 was godawful, and Pirates sequels notwithstanding that often spells certain doom for subsequent sequels, no matter how much the movies have made till now.

So I’m rooting for Shrek 4 to be a tremendous flop because let’s face it, this is a franchise that ran its course with two. Sadly, stopping with 4 or 5 Shrek movies doesn’t mean there won’t be more characters. DreamWorks has spin-offs and spin-arounds cooking, expect them to force those on you as soon as possible.