First look: ‘Transformers’ ties ‘Ice Age’ on soft July 4 weekend

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‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ and ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ topped the box office together this weekend as July 4 falling on a Saturday dealt a major blow to movie ticket sales.

Both Paramount’s Michael Bay-directed event film and Fox’s animated sequel earned a studio-estimated $42.5 million this weekend. Over the five days since ‘Ice Age’ started on Wednesday, however, Fox’s animated feature had a slight advantage with $67.5 million compared to $65 million.

‘Transformers,’ which cost almost $200 million to produce, has now grossed a jaw droppping $293.5 million in the U.S. and Canada in its first 12 days. On Friday it passed ‘Up’ to become the most successful film so far this year at the box office.

‘Ice Age’s’ started was decided mixed, as it earned about the same in five days as the last film in the series earned in three, despite significantly higher ticket prices at the 39% of its theaters where the film played in 3-D. Animated films have generally experienced mild drops at the box office, but Fox’s movie, which cost around $90 million to produce, has the disadvantage of Warner Bros.’ family-focused ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ hitting theaters in just a week and a half.

Universal’s ‘Public Enemies’ had a so-so start as well, selling $26.1 million worth of tickets over the weekend and $41 million since it debuted Wednesday. That’s almost exactly in line with the launches of the last two Michael Mann-directed movies, ‘Miami Vice’ in 2006 and ‘Collateral’ in 2004. Those films had very different fates thanks to divergent audience buzz, however, as ‘Collateral’ went on to gross $101 million after its $24.7 million opening weekend, while ‘Vice’ made only $63.5 million after starting with $25.7 million.

It remains to be seen whether ‘Enemies,’ which cost a little over $100 million to make, will benefit from generally positive reviews and the appeal of star Johnny Depp to follow the path of ‘Collateral’ and prove a solid box office performer.

Every movie took a significant hit on Saturday July 4, as the holiday kept many away from theaters and grosses for the top three pictures fell between 33% and 40% from Friday. Traditionally they stay even or rise a bit.

Unless more people hit theaters in the coming weeks to make up for missing films they wanted to see on Saturday, however, that will turn out to be lost money for the studios.

--Ben Fritz