Animation Dominates The U. S. Box Office

Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth installment in Blue Sky’s prehistoric series, opened last weekend int the top spot with an estimated $46 million. The opening weekend was modest compared to other CG films in 2012, but that was to be expected since the series is a bigger hit overseas than domestically. The last entry in the Ice Age series–Dawn of the Dinosaurs–earned $886.6 million around the world. To put that into perspective, that’s more than any Pixar film except for Toy Story 3. The new Continental Drift has already banked $339 million around the globe in addition to its U. S. total.

Besides Ice Age, there were three other animated films in the U. S. top ten (or two more, for those who don’t think of Ted as animated). Seth MacFarlane’s part-animated, part-live-action Ted took third place with an estimated $22.1M in its third weekend for a total of $159M. Pixar’s Brave followed in fourth place with $10.7M and a four-week total of $195.6M DreamWorks’ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted took tenth place in its 6th weekend with an estimated $3.5M and a total of $203.7M.