Despite some surprisingly strong competition from "Brave," "Ice Age: Continental Drift" was easily the number one movie of the weekend, racking up $46 million on a per venue average of more than $11,000. "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Ted" also put up some big numbers, with "Spider-Man" pushing its total to $200 million domestically and "Ted" surpassing "21 Jump Street" to become the number one R-rated movie of the year. Director Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" was another title that continued to hit with its target demographic, as the indie comedy is starting to put up some strong overall numbers for distributor Focus Features.
As Pixar's "Brave" broke $10 million once again this weekend, "Ice Age: Continental Drift" didn't quite have the family demographic to itself despite its large built-in audience. With a $46 million opening haul, the total was actually the worst domestic opening in the series, falling just shy of what the original "Ice Age" earned back in 2002.
But even if the domestic opening wasn't spectacular for "Continental Drift," outside of the U.S. has been a different story. With $339 million in foreign revenue already, "Continental Drift" is closing in on $400 million worldwide and it should continue to put up some big worldwide numbers throughout the rest of the month. Considering that "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" racked up an eye-popping $886 million worldwide, there is an enormous international following that should easily make "Continental Drift" the top overall animated earner of 2012. So far, even with the overall success of "Brave" and "Madagascar 3," there hasn't been an animated film that has crossed $500 million worldwide in 2012 and "Continental Drift" seems like a lock to do exactly that.
Also doing very well around the globe has been "The Amazing Spider-Man." The Sony/Columbia reboot has already shot past $500 million around the globe and put up a very strong second weekend in the U.S. Dipping just 43.6% from its opening weekend, "Spider-Man" is now at $200 million domestically, though numbers are likely to be negatively affected by the highly anticipated Friday release of "The Dark Knight Rises." "Spider-Man" should put together a few more decent weekends and finish in the neighborhood of $300 million domestically and $750 million worldwide, easily enough to justify the 2014 sequel.
As action audiences gravitated back to "The Amazing Spider-Man," comedy seekers turned out once again for breakout hit "Ted." With very strong word-of-mouth, "Ted" racked up $22 million over the weekend, which is a slip of only 31.2% from its second weekend in theaters. "Ted" is now up to $158 million domestically in just 17 days, making it far and away the top R-rated release of the year thus far. Though "The Dark Knight Rises" will impact "Ted" as well this weekend, the buzz has been too strong for the Universal release to drop off the map in the coming weeks. "Ted" should eventually get to $200 million in the U.S. by the time it's out of theaters, making it only the fifth R-rated comedy ever to do so.
The weekend could also be the last that "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" ends up in the top ten after a strong box office run for Paramount/Dreamworks. Backed by significant critical buzz and a worldwide haul in the neighborhood of $500 million, the "Madagascar" franchise seems alive and well and should lead to another entry in the next few years.
Aiming at a much different audience has been "Moonrise Kingdom," an art house hit from director Wes Anderson ("The Royal Tenenbaums," "Rushmore"). Though it started slowly, "Moonrise Kingdom" eventually found its target demographic, helping it land in the top ten four times despite never reaching even 1,000 theaters in the U.S. With a production budget of only $16 million, "Moonrise Kingdom" is one of the better performing limited releases of the summer and the biggest hit for Anderson since "The Royal Tenenbaums" was released more than a decade ago.
While "Ice Age" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" dominated the box office this past weekend, everything changes Friday with arguably the most anticipated release of the summer. Like "The Avengers," "The Dark Knight Rises" has an enormous fan base and is a lock to be among the top earners of the year. After "The Dark Knight" cracked $500 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide, Christopher Nolan's famed "Batman" trilogy has about as much hype as possible heading into an opening weekend.
Early Studio Box Office Estimates for 7/13/12 - 7/15/12 (In Millions), [RTT Prediction]:
1. Ice Age: Continental Drift (Fox): $46 [$55]
2. The Amazing Spider-Man (Sony/Columbia): $35 [$38]
3. Ted (Universal): $22.15 [$18]
4. Brave (Disney): $10.70 [$9.5]
5. Magic Mike (Warner Brothers): $9.03 [$7.7]
6. Savages (Universal): $8.74 [$8]
7. Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (Lionsgate): $5.60 [$4.9]
8. Katy Perry: Part of Me (Paramount): $3.74 [$3.2]
9. Moonrise Kingdom (Focus Features): $3.66 [$2.3]
10. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Paramount/Dreamworks): $3.50 [$3.4]
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.