Can't get preg_match_all to work properly

I'm trying to create a function that will search a string for special characters and replace them but I can't get preg_match_all to break the string apart correctly.
Below is code showing the problem. I surround the text to be replaced with %%+ and %%-.

[PHP]$str = "first entry is %%+FIRST%%- and the second entry is %%+SECOND%%-";

preg_match_all("/%%\+(.*)%%-/", $str, $matches );

OUTPUT IS

 Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => %%+FIRST%%- and the second entry is %%+SECOND%%-
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => FIRST%%- and the second entry is %%+SECOND
        )
)

PHP:

What I'm looking for in the output is something like this

 Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => %%+FIRST%%- and the second entry is %%+SECOND%%-
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => FIRST
        )
)

PHP:

I would appreciate it if anyone can point out my mistake or provide a better way of doing this.

 

try (.*?) instead of (.*)

basically
(.*) is greedy and (.*?) will stop at the first occurance

 

That worked perfectly. Thank you for the solution.