U.K. box office: ‘Ice Age 3’ not cold at all

All sorts of kudos to Ice Age 3, as Charles Gant notes at the Guardian Film blog: it’s the biggest 3D opening to date in the U.K. (with 3D-capable screens there rapidly expanding), and it’s the second biggest opening of the year, after Transformers: ROTF. It opened even stronger, on a comparative basis, than it did in North America: that £7.6 million figure includes Wednesday and Thursday previews, which puts the timescale on a par with the five-day opening it had in North America (what with the Fourth of July holiday extending the “weekend”)... yet it earned “only” $66.7 million in North America in its first five days. Though should have predicted a U.K. five-day opening of about £6.6 million, or, conversely, the U.K. opening could have indicated a North American opening of $76 million.

Either way, it’s good for the movie, and it means there’s sure to be an Ice Age 4.

As in North America, the real hit of the summer continues to be The Hangover, with week after week of small drops contributing to its huge cumulative haul ($205 million in North America at the end of last weekend; almost £14 million in the U.K.)... and that’s on top of a nonblockbuster budget, which will likely make this little flick far more profitable than Transformers (or Harry Potter, or Ice Age, or Up).

[numbers via UK Film Council]