TRANSFORMERS MADE 11 MILLION ON TUESDAY. ICE AGE 3 MAKES 14 MILLION IN ONE DAY

DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com has the latest.

The Fourth Of July 5-day holiday blasted off at the North American box office Wednesday with something for everyone: families, fanboys, and adults fed up there's been almost nothing for them in movie theaters. Fox's Ice Age 3-D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opened very promisingly with $14 million from 3,993 venues. (Rival studios had been claiming the pic wasn't tracking well with young boys, and that's why 20th felt the need to sneak it recently.) With the public clearly not tiring of 3-D toons, my box office gurus predict the threequel can come close to $60M for the full 5-day holiday even though Saturday's grosses on the 4th will be weak for every movie. That Ice Age 3 beat Transformers 2 on opening day is "significant," one Fox exec told me. "Doubt we'll win the weekend though, since Saturday is a dead day." The 3-day weekend estimate is around $45M.

The toon should stay neck and neck all weekend with the $60M expected over the 5-day holiday and $45M for the 3-day weekend from Paramount's Tranformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen which took in $11 million Wednesday from its still gigantic release into 4,234 dates. That's only -19% from its Tuesday haul of $13.5M, but a big -82% from its record-smashing opening day a week ago. The actioner's domestic cume is now $239M. Combined with $221M from international, that's a new worldwide total of a staggering $460+M.

I've seen Ice Age 3 and it is very good (very funny too...the Joke with Sid and the OX was brilliant.) great family entertainment. It also appears TF2 is doing very well as we are on a Tuesday and it is sitll grossing over $10 million USD per-day. I'll keep you posted.

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