Ice Age: Continental Drift braved scorching heat across the country and drummed up $16.5 million in ticket sales on Friday, its first full day of release. It easily topped The Amazing Spider-Man and is on a fast track to be the number one grossing film this weekend.
Critics weren’t in love with another formulaic Ice Age adventure starring the voices of Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo and Jennifer Lopez, but audiences turned out in decent numbers to see what Scrat and the other prehistoric goof-ups were up to. The $16.5 million opening day trailed the $21.8 million put up by Ice Age: The Meltdown, but still topped the other Ice Age films. It should finish its first weekend somewhere in the neighborhood of $45 million.
The Amazing Spider-Man shed half of its first Friday business to finish with $10.3 million. With $176.2 million in the bank thus far, Andrew Garfield still has a ways to go to catch up to any of the three Tobey Maguire Spidey flicks.
Ted continues to be one popular teddy with another $6.9 million scored, raising its gross to $143.7 million. It will easily cross $150 million and, if word of mouth continues to hold strong, has an outside shot at reaching $200 million.
Channing Tatum danced up $3.4 million in Magic Mike, good enough for fourth place. The film now has less than $14 million left before reaching $100 million.
Pixar and Disney’s Brave took a hit from Ice Age: Continental Drift with a 48% drop down to $3.3 million. Even so, with $188.2 million collected already, Brave is a sure bet to cross $200 million and keep on going.
Check back tomorrow to see if Ice Age: Continental Drift missed $45 million, reached it, or picked up steam from matinees and made a run for $50 million.
