"Ice Age" Freezes Out "Instinct"

Not even her vaunted ice pick could save Sharon Stone from the Ice Age onslaught.

Ice Age: The Meltdown put the deep freeze on the multiplex competition by sweeping up a truly mammoth $68 million over the weekend.

That left slim pickings for the three other movies entering wide release, with none faring as badly as Basic Instinct 2, which managed to vamp up just $3.2 million from Friday to Sunday to finish in 10th place, putting the long-in-the-works sequel in a virtual tie with the decidedly unsexy Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector ($3.16 million in 11th place).

Despite some lukewarm reviews, Meltdown pulled in 51.5 percent of the audience buying tickets at the North American theaters. Flowing into 3,964 locations, the cool cartoon--featuring the voices of Ray Romano, Denis Leary and John Leguizamo as the oddball trio of prehistoric beasties Manny, Diego and Sid, along with the return of the acorn-addicted squirrel Scrat and a new mammoth babe (Queen Latifah)--averaged a whopping $17,163 per screen.

The CGI sequel ranks as the biggest ever March opener and the fourth biggest animated debut of all time, after the $108 million of DreamWorks' Shrek 2, the $70.5 million of Pixar's The Incredibles and $70.3 million of Finding Nemo.

The original Ice Age, which debuted in March 2002 with a then month record $46.3 million, grossed $176.3 million domestically before a lucrative DVD release. With Fox reportedly expecting a debut for Meltdown somewhere around the mid $50 million mark, the weekend figures had the suits squawking.

"Great news...extraordinary" exclaimed Fox's distribution executive Bruce Snyder, who noted that Meltdown was "right up there with the best of the Pixar openings, and that's rarified air, so we're delighted!"

"Great marketing; a perfect family film; perfect timing with no competition for a family film," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, citing reasons for Meltdown's success, which he says, presages positive feelings for the upcoming summer season.

"With over 50 percent of ticket buyers, this means the film basically crosses over to all audiences," he added, noting that its appeal wasn't just confined to families with kids. On Friday night, Meltdown took in $21.8 million, on Saturday, $28 million, and on Sunday, $18.3 million. The 'toon earned an additional $43.4 million opening overseas.

Dergarabedian also credits Meltdown with thawing out what had been a sluggish box office so far in 2006. Led by the 'toon, the top 10 films grossed about $130 million, up a resounding 35 percent from this time last year, when Sin City reigned.

Think how much higher that figure could have been if Basic Instinct 2 wasn't so awful. Faced with Showgirls-esque reviews and Stone's loopy promotional tour, the R-rated MGM-Columbia release was dumped into 1,453 sites, where it only averaged $2,203 per screen.

But performing above expectations was another newcomer, ATL, about orphaned brothers who hang around a roller rink in urban Georgia, starring Tip Harris and Evan Ross and OutKast's Atwan "Big Boi" Patton. The PG-13 Warner Bros. release debuted in third place with $11.6 million. At only 1,602 sites, it averaged $7,212, which was higher than the $5,555 at 2,830 sites for Inside Man, which dropped to second place. The Spike Lee-helmed bank heist thriller deposited another $15.4 million in its coffers, off 47 percent from its opening week, to bring its two-week gross to $52.5 million.

The fourth of the week's major new releases was the wry Universal horror flick Slither, which opened down in eighth place with $3.9 million. The teen-targeting film about invasive alien life forms touched down in 1,945 theaters, where it averaged a very sluggish $1,995.

In limited release, Focus Features' R-rated Brick, a film noir take on a high school murder mystery, looks like it will be building big word of mouth when it expands next week thanks to a very impressive $41,787 average at just two sites for $83,574. On the flip side, Sony Pictures Classics' PG-13 The Devil & Daniel Johnston, a documentary about the cult musician, struck the wrong chord, averaging just $4,638 at five sites for $23,192.

Finally, Thank You for Smoking continued to light up the box office. Adding 72 sites to play at 126, the R-rated Fox Searchlight release averaged $12,748 for a weekend total of $1.6 million. That brings its three-week total to $3.3 million.

Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on final studio figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Ice Age: The Meltdown, $68 million
2. Inside Man, $15.4 million
3. ATL, $11.6 million
4. Failure to Launch, $6.5 million
5. V For Vendetta, $6.3 million
6. Stay Alive, $4.5 million
7. She's The Man, $4.4 million
8. Slither, $3.9 million
9. The Shaggy Dog, $3.24 million
10. Basic Instinct 2, $3.2 million

(Originally published Apr. 2, 2004 at 1:35 p.m. PT.)