Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have emerged from the July Fourth weekend locked in a rare tie for the box office crown.
Both films grossed an estimated $42.5 million from Friday through Sunday, marking an overall strong weekend at the box office. More final figures, due for release on Monday, could push one film or the other into a slim victory.
The weekend gross brings the domestic total for Ice Age, a 3-D CG animated feature from Fox and Blue Sky Studios, to $67.5 million. Transformers continued its blockbuster performance, cruising to a total domestic gross of $293 million, making it by far the year’s best-grossing film.
Overseas, the debut of Ice Age set a record as the best-ever international opening for an animated feature. The film took in $148 million in 101 markets, bringing its worldwide total gross to $215 million.
Public Enemies, which opened July 1 alongside Ice Age, cruised to third place with a gross of $26 million for the weekend and a domestic total of $41 million.
Holdover comedies The Proposal and The Hangover clung to the fourth- and fifth-place spots, while Disney-Pixar’s Up came in sixth this weekend with $6.6 million, bringing it to a $264 million domestic total.
