CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box Office: Ice Age: Continental Drift Off to Glacier Start

Seth Paul

American audiences apparently have decided they’ve had their fill of talking cartoon animals for a little while, as Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth in the 20th Century Fox franchise, earned an estimated $46 million, about $14 million shy of DreamWorks’ Madasgascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’s opening weekend (which landed in tenth place this weekend for an estimated $3.5 million).  However, though its domestic success is off to a rocky start (with much less favorable critical review than Madagascar 3 as well), it has a few things in its favor compared to its early release rival…it reportedly cost less ($100 million to $145 million) and it has struck a chord overseas, making $339 million in foreign box office compared to Madagascar 3’s $270.1 million, ensuring both film’s profitability in worldwide total sales.

The Amazing Spider-Man finds itself in a similar boat…while its estimated $35 million this weekend puts the film comfortably in the $200.9 million category domestically, it has to rely on substantial foreign box office ($320.5 million) to make its $230 million price tag worthwhile, and despite good reviews still lags behind the success of Sam Raimi’s trilogy of films as well as a few of the more popular recent Marvel productions.  Still, Seth McFarlane’s Ted remains a crowd favorite, earning an estimated $22.1 million this weekend and a whopping $159 million domestically, well above its $50 million budget.

Brave finally broke above its budget, its $10.7 million weekend estimate putting it at $195.6 million domestically over its $185 million budget.  It needed it, too…so far it is the only Pixar film not to break into triple digits in the foreign market, and is a long way away from doing so with only $46.8 million outside the U.S.  While it has done better than Cars 2 domestically, this makes Brave the worst worldwide earner in Pixar’s illustrative history.  Not so with Magic Mike…the decidedly un-family friendly film took in an estimated $9 million, and has made half of what Brave has domestically with $91.9 million, but at $7 million to make, not only has it blown away Brave in sheer profit, but lands in the top ten earners for director Steven Soderbergh as well, making it a win on all fronts.

Speaking of famous directors, Oliver Stone probably wishes he had made Magic Mike, as his Savages is not only being savaged by critics, but flopping at the box office…with an estimated $8.7 million this weekend, the revenge action film has barely topped $31.5 million domestically (with barely a blip in foreign gross) and is still short of its $45 million budget.  And believe it or not, two Perrys are rolling in green…Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection only grabbed an estimated $5.6 million, but has moved up the charts in terms of Perry’s overall movies with $55.6 million domestically, making what was once only an average earner much higher in his overall films and middling for the Madea franchise in particular.  Katy Perry: Part of Me also showed a surprise turnaround due to a strong weekly performance, making the estimated $3.7 million this weekend pale against the $18.6 million domestic earnings that mostly came from solid weekday performances.  Moonrise Kingdom pulled in just ahead of Madagascar 3 to make just under an estimated $3.7 million, and while $32 million in domestic gross may not sound like much, this, like Magic Mike, is actually a strong performer for director Wes Anderson, his second most successful film domestically and third most worldwide.

Weekend Box-Office (July 13th – July 15th)

  1. Ice Age: Continental Drift…$46 million
  2. The Amazing Spider-Man…$35 million
  3. Ted…$22.1 million
  4. Brave…$10.7 million
  5. Magic Mike…$9 million
  6. Savages…$8.7 million
  7. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection Program…$5.6 million
  8. Katy Perry: Part of Me…$3.7 million
  9. Moonrise Kingdom…$3.7 million
  10. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted…$3.5 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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