FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM: The Fourth Of July 5-day holiday weekend blasted off at the North American box office Friday with something for everyone: families, fanboys, and adults fed up there's been almost nothing for them in movie theaters. Fox's Ice Age 3-D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opened very promisingly with $14 million Wednesday, $11.5M Thursday, and $16.2M Friday from 3,993 venues. (Rival studios had been claiming the pic wasn't tracking well with young boys, and that's why 20th felt the need to sneak it at 330 theaters recently. Fox said it "added an additional marketing layer prior to the onslaught of Transformers 2.) With the public clearly not tiring of 3-D toons, the threequel can come close to $45M July Fourth weekend and $70M for the full 5-day holiday even though Saturday's grosses on the 4th will be weak for every movie.
The toon should stay neck and neck all weekend with the $47M July Fourth weekend and $68M five-day holiday expected for Paramount's Tranformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen. The robot sequel took in $11 million Wednesday from its still gigantic release into 4,234 dates (-82% from its record-smashing opening day a week ago), and took back the No. 1 title with $11.6M Thursday, and $17.6M Friday. So even though the pic has been panned, 
it's clearly standing tall on strong legs. The actioner's domestic cume is now a huge $295M going into its 10th day and on the verge of becoming the highest-grossing pic of 2009 with over $250M from international, and a new worldwide total over a staggering $500+M.
Despite strong tracking and positive reviews, Universal had been nervous about the debut of Public Enemies because so many adult-oriented pics have failed in recent weeks. (So were exhibitors. According to a report slipped to me by a rival studio, they were disappointed with the story, felt it lacked the promised action, and squirmed when it was too long.) But the well marketed combination of Michael Mann and Johnny Depp is luring adult filmgoers hungry for another original and artistic crime saga which is a rarity in this summer of remakes, reboots and reheated sequels. The expensive gangster pic opened to $8 million Wednesday, $6.7M Thursday, and $9.6M for Friday from 3,319 runs. It's expected to make $25M for the July Fourth weekend and a decent $40M for the 5-day holiday. That's above the $30+M which Uni had projected in order to lower expectations. But you won't hear audible sighs coming from Black Tower unless Public Enemies shows legs and passes $100M domestic.
Disney's The Proposal came in #4 with $5.2M Friday for what's projected to be a $13.5M Fourth Of July weekend for a $95M cume. in 5th place, Warner Bros' The Hangover just keeps going on and on and for $4.4M Friday for an estimated $10.5M holiday weekend and a new cume of $204.5M. Close for #6, Pixar/Disney's Up made $2.4M Friday for what's probably a $6M July Fourth weekend and new cume of $264.3M. New Line/Warner Bros' My Sisters Keeper came in No. 7 and took in $2.3M Friday for an estimated $5.7M weekend and cume of $26.5M.
Sony's The Taking Of Pelham 123 was 8th with $1M Friday and projected $2.5M weekend and cume of $58.5M. Sony's bomb Year One came in #9 with $850K and an estimated $2.1M Friday for a $38.2M cume. Amd, rounding out the Top 10, Fox's Night at the Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian earned $725K Friday for what's probably a $1.9M weekend and cume of $167.5M.
This weekend, total box office looks like $165M, slightly up from last year and close to the 2004 record. But, again, the July Fourth drop-off expected for Saturday can't be exaggerated.
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