Friday Box Office: Fourth “Ice Age” fails to match up to predecessors

Despite a stunning start overseas, “Ice Age: Continental Drift” could not live up to the box office standard set by its predecessors on Friday, opening to an OK-but-unimpressive $16.5m. That’s barely more than the original’s $13.5m, but keep in mind that the original opened in March, when kids were in school for Friday matinees. But the tell-tale sign that this franchise is on the decline in the U.S. is that this fourth installment fell 28 percent from the second film’s opening day, which was $21.8m, also in March. (There is no direct comparison for the third film, because it opened on a Wednesday.) That said, it wouldn’t appear that the studio, 20th Century Fox, cares that much, because the movie, like #3, is doing tremendously overseas, with $238m already in the till. There’s a sign of where the film industry is headed if there ever was one.

Otherwise, there weren’t many box office highlights this weekend. No big indie openings, no particularly impressive holds or unexpected drops. Here is the full top 10 chart…

Source: Box Office Mojo