Box Office Report: Transformers and Ice Age Tie Holiday Weekend

This doesn’t happen too often. For the July 4th holiday weekend two new films entered the race against Optimus Prime and Co. and who finished on top? Oddly enough it was Transformers 2 and Ice Age 3 which both grossed $42.5 million over the three day weekend. Come tomorrow morning, one movie will push the other and we will have an actual winner, but for the rest of today we can talk about this rare tie. These sequels were in a photo finish for the three day weekend but since Ice Age 3 came out on Wednesday it had a five day total of $67.5 million, whereas Transformers 2 only made $64.9 million. So in the scope of 5 days Ice Age 3 was king, but for the 3 day gross Transformers 2 was top dog.

After 10 days of release Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has grossed $293.4 million. It has now become the highest grossing film this year and is still truckin’ along. The other new release this weekend was Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies which also was released on Wednesday. The film about notorious bank robber John Dillinger made $26 million over the three day weekend and $41 million after five days of release. The film which costars Christian Bale received mixed reviews, but should hold up pretty strong because it is the only draw for adults at theaters right now.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds continued to bring in an audience with their romantic comedy The Proposal. The film came in fourth place this weekend with another $12.8 million in the bank. It currently stands at $94.2 million and counting. In fifth place was The Hangover which made $10.4 million and after five weeks of release has made $204 million. Not too bad for a comedy without any big name stars huh?

In other box office news Pixar’s Up has now become the second highest grossing Pixar film of all time. With $264 million the animated film passed The Incredibles and is only second to Finding Nemo as Pixar’s highest money makers. It has been a huge summer so far and next week we see the arrival of Bruno and the Wednesday after that is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.