Ice Age 2 Gathers $70.5 Million in Its Opening Weekend

As expected, the competition for last weekend's box office chart was terrible, with two world wide premieres (Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction and Ice Age 2: the Meltdown) competing with two former number ones still being viewed by large audiences (Inside Man and V for Vendetta).

The cartoon-ish adventures of the grumpy mammoth, the sarcastic Saber Teeth Tiger, the "funny" Sid and the walnut chasing crazed Scrat gathered more than many other cartoons did in the first weekend. The best opening cartoon was the Shrek sequel. Ice Age 2 follows the good B.O record established by first Ice Age movie, which gained an estimate 46.3 million in its opening weekend. Recently, cartoons had lost most of their theater audiences and are sold much better on DVD. (See the recent success Disney's latest animation movie, Chicken Little got on DVD and the medium interest it aroused while in theaters).

The cold welcome given to the sexy flick sequel and the brand new horror movie was to be expected. Aged 48 Sharon Stone might look good (for her age) but the time of sexy thrillers has totally run out. And the few curious enough to go see it were so disappointed that the (true and honest) rumors about the movie's lack of any major interest kept away many of the still willing to see it.

Basic Instinct 2 didn't even make in the top 10, its "$3.2 million are a total (and dirty) shame (because they represent 20 percent of the 1992's original opening gross).

Spike Lee's heist drama is on the second position, after gaining $15.7 million and V for Vendetta slowly falls from the grace of the audience, gaining only $6.5 million.




1. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown ($ 70.5/$ 70.5)
2. Inside Man ($ 15.7/$ 52.8)
3. ATL ($ 12.5/$ 12.5)
4. Failure to Launch ($ 6.6/$ 73.2)
5. V for Vendetta ($ 6.5/$ 56.8)
6. Stay Alive ($ 4.6/$ 17.3)
7. She's the Man ($ 4.6/$ 26.8)
8. Slither ($ 3.7/$ 3.7)
9. The Shaggy Dog ($ 3.5/$ 53.8)
10. Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector ($ 3.2/$ 11.5)