How did Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 finish at the 4th of July Weekend Box Office?
Talk about a photo finish. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs reached the end of the July 4 weekend effectively tied for the three-day weekend box office crown, with both films taking in $42.5 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. Those numbers will undoubtedly change once final figures are announced on Monday — except that, really, Manny the Woolly Mammoth has most likely already taken this fight. We all know that when school’s out for the summer, there really isn’t such a thing as a “weekend” when it comes to movies aimed at the kids. To wit: Although its three-day opening weekend is the lowest ever for the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age 3’s estimated five-day opening gross stands at $67.5 million. In the same five-day period, Transformers 2 took in an estimated $64.9 million, a clear second place. Still, Optimus is no slouch; with $293.4 million in the bank, Transformers 2
Due to the fact that the top two films (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) are literally tied at $42.5 million, I’m ignoring the rankings and just concentrating on the numbers. Regardless, it looks like everything did moderately well according to expectations. The big opener of the weekend is Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. At this point, it appears that the third Ice Age film did in five days ($67.5 million) exactly what Ice Age: The Meltdown accomplished in three days ($68.3 million). Granted, the calendar necessitated a Wednesday opening for part 3 (July 4th, not a good day for box office, was on a Saturday this year), and the second Ice Age film opened on March 30th, 2006 with next to no competition. I’m not even going to try to estimate the final domestic gross here, but this is a terrific opening for this sure-to-be-continued Fox franchise. Sources:
