Kids across the globe gave Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs a huge welcome, helping it break the box-office record for an animation movie. And in America, adults gave a friendly welcome the Johnny Depp-Christian Bale true-life gangster drama Public Enemies, proving that serious dramas can indeed co-exist and prosper with hit fantasy thrillers released in summer.
The new Ice Age film opened in America on Wednesday to have a jump start on July 4 holiday weekend. It opened immediately in every continent, grossed worldwide $215 million. Producer and distributor Fox said the movie broke records in major markets, especially in Russia and Brazil. In India, too, Fox said the film had done remarkable business. With a cost of $90 million (with another $90 million for prints and marketing), the movie has recouped its basic cost in just about five days. Only a handful of films in a year achieve that status. During the first week run of major, star-driven films, the producer and distributor get about 60 percent of the total box-office gross.
Though the film popularly called Ice Age 3 has done pretty well in North America grossing $67 million in five days, its business outside North America is nothing short of being phenomenal. About 30 percent of the theaters are showing it in 3D.
'It may have been Fourth of July in the United States, but Hollywood found the most reasons to celebrate overseas,' wrote Los Angeles Times, 'as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opened to a huge $148 million during its first five days in 101 foreign countries.'
The Fourth of July weekend is one of the busiest weekends for the movies across America.
Ice Age 3, could reach $400 million, by the time Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens in less than two weeks with tremendous appeal for the younger moviegoers. But even with the new Harry Potter dominating box-office, there would still be plenty of audiences for the Ice Age saga.
Kids apparently do not care for reviews, at least in the case of Ice Age 3. But then the adults who read the newspapers did not care for the negative reviews for Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which has grossed nearly $600 million worldwide in less than three weeks. The movie could end up with a worldwide $750 million haul. Even for a film that cost $200 million, it would be a very profitable run; the DVD and other ancillary income will easily offset over $150 million prints and marketing costs.
Amidst the family friendly dino-saga (Ice Age 3) and the story of resourceful machines (Transformers 2) trying to save the humankind from predatory machines, the Universal gangster saga, the well-reviewed Public Enemies did strong business and surprised many observers in Hollywood. The movie, which has opened in a few countries outside of North America , grossed an encouraging $41 million in five days here and a fair $5 million in three days in the United Kingdom, Mexico and three smaller markets..
Though Public Enemies does have its share of thrills including superbly shot action scenes, by and large is quite a serious, and often slow-moving film. The film based on the real life exploits of the charismatic and media-savvy real life bank robbing gang leader John Dillinger could be a major contender at the Oscars.
No one associated with the film, which cost $100 million expected it to make blockbuster movie business, Hollywood insiders say. But if it did take less than $100 million in North America, it would have been deemed a failure. Now it looks it is headed for that benchmark, proving that there is indeed room for a serious film amidst all the effects-driven adrenaline pumping movie behemoths.
'Good news for people who like films about grown-ups The genre is not dead,' said Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing and distribution, in interviews.
