NEW YORK (AP) — With Batman lurking, the prehistoric critters of "Ice Age: Continental Drift" ran off with the box office, earning $46 million in their opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The animated film from 20th Century Fox is the fourth in the "Ice Age" series and the first in 3-D. The North America performance of "Continental Drift" was on par with previous "Ice Age" movies but well below the opening weekend of the second installment, "The Meltdown," which opened with $68 million in 2006.
"Scrat rules the world," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox, referring to the films' rat-squirrel mascot, whose wordless, futile pursuit of a nut is a mainstay of the movies.
The "Ice Age" franchise has now surpassed $2.2 billion worldwide, and the studio expects "Continental Drift" to equal the global total of the last installment, 2009's "Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which took in $886.7 million.
Watch The Official Trailer[HD] here :
Watch The Official Trailer[HD] here :
"There's really not very many animated franchises that have had three sequels," said Aronson. "The performance of 'Ice Age' has been remarkably consistent."
The weekend was inevitably shadowed by two superheroes, coming a week after the debut of Sony's Spider-Man reboot, "The Amazing Spider-Man," and one week before the highly-anticipated Batman sequel, "The Dark Knight Rises."
In its second week of release, "Spider-Man" earned $35 million, pushing it past $200 million domestically. It earned nearly $67 million overseas over the weekend, bringing its worldwide gross to $521.4 million.
But the weekend belonged to family films, which had three of the top 10 films at the box office.
"This shows how incredibly important the family audience is, particularly in the summer when families are looking for entertainment that's appropriate for the kids and the parents as well," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "You've got three family films that all performed incredibly well and each weekend topped the box office."
![]() |
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) |
"The Avengers" earlier this year opened bigger than "Deathly Hallows," but that record could well be tested by Christopher Nolan's third Batman film come next weekend.
"This is the calm before the storm that is 'The Dark Knight,'" said Dergarabedian.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday:
1. "Ice Age: Continental Drift," $46 million ($95 million internationally)
2. "The Amazing Spider-Man," $35 million ($66.6 million internationally).
3. "Ted," $22.1 million, ($9.7 million internationally).
4. "Brave," $10.7 million, ($6.5 million internationally).
5. "Magic Mike," $9 million, ($3.3 million internationally).
6. "Savages," $8.7 million, ($1 million internationally).
7. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection," $5.6 million.
8. "Katy Perry: Part of Me," $3.7 million, ($1 million internationally).
9. "Moonrise Kingdom," $3.7 million, ($270,000 internationally).
10. "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," $3.5 million ($4.6 million internationally).
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Ice Age: Continental Drift," $95 million.
2. "The Amazing Spider-Man," $66.6 million.
3. "Ted," $9.7 million.
4. "Snow White and the Huntsman," $9.3 million.
5. "Deranged," $7.5 million.
6. "Brave," $6.5 million.
7. "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," $4.6 million.
8. "Bol Bachchan," $4.3 million.
9. "Magic Mike," $3.3 million.
10. "The Dictator," $3.3 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment