Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs crushed all before it as an estimated $148m haul from 101 markets through Fox delivered the sixth biggest
international launch ever and the biggest animated debut in history.

The extraordinary result surpassed its predecessor and ranked number one in most territories, setting a string of industry records. The
animated release combined with the $67.5m number one North American opening to move past $215m worldwide in its first weekend.

Paramount/DreamWorks’ Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen cruised towards $300m in its second weekend through PPI, while Sony’s one-two
punch from Angels & Demons and Terminator Salvation saw those films reach $342m and $228m, respectively.

Ice Age 3 went out on 11,652 screens and the 3D result was significant, delivering $51m from 2,126 screens for 34% of the total
revenue from 18% of the screens in what was the widest and most lucrative 3D launch ever.

It is worth bearing in mind that premium price points for 3D ticket sales often lead to a disproportionately high figure when compared to
the screen count.

The overall debut ranks behind only Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 on $251m, Spider-Man 3 on $230.9m, Harry Potter 5 on $185.3n,
Transformers 2 on $165.4m, and The Da Vinci Code’s $155m.

Fox International executives noted that if Ice Age 3 were compared to Transformers 2 in the same territories (the animated release is yet to
open in China, Japan, South Korea and Italy) it in fact surpassed PPI’s hit by $27.5m. Similarly, it beat The Da Vinci Code by $23.4m.

The film set new industry marks in well over a dozen territories, among them Russia on $18.9m (589m roubles), Mexico on $10m (132.4m
pesos) for 65% market share, Brazil on $10.3m, and Austria on $3.4m (€2.4m).

Germany produced $16.6m and the UK delivered $13.1m (£7.9m) including two days of previews, while France’s $15.7m (€11.1m) was one of more
than ten territories that produced all-time animated launch records. Another was India, where Ice Age 3 grossed $395,000 (19m rupees).

In other key markets, the film managed $9m in Spain, $6.5m in Australia, $3m in Switzerland for the second biggest animated launch
behind Ice Age 2, and $2m in Norway for once again the silver medal in the all-time animated pantheon behind Ice Age 2. There was a notable
result too in Hong Kong, where it took $1.9m from 67 screens including a record $1.6m from 50 3D screens.

Sunday was much better than expected in Germany so the opening looks like 1,655,000 admissions - by far the biggest opening of the year beating A&D (also a Wednesday opener) by half a million tickets...

How is this doing so well?
It's embarrassing that it thrashes Pixar so badly but to floor Dreamworks at the same time is just insane.

These are the biggest CGI animated movies (admissions) in Germany:

http://www.insidekino.com/DJahr/Dcgi.htm

Just to put it in perspective:

3m admissions = blockbuster (comparable to a $200m grosser in the US/CAN)
6m admissons = überblockbuster ($400m)

I wonder if either HP7-I/II or The Hobbitt will bring us back to these levels again. I want a FOTR re-release to beat HP1