Weekend Box Office: Heaving a deep sigh of resignation, Americans go see yet another Ice Age movie

By Scott Tobias | July 16, 2012 | 2:34pm

Aux Features Film

A vague sense of existential despair gripped the American moviegoing populace this weekend, as adults defeated by life shuffled off to see Ice Age: Continental Drift with their children so that they, too, might lower their expectations for what’s possible and just blithely accept the mediocrities that come their way. Coming after Pixar’s solid Brave and the better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be Madagascar 3, Ice Age 4 was the usual mild riffing performed by a collection of celebrity voice artists, but that was enough to earn it $46 million for first place, ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man in its second week. For comparison’s sake, it posted almost exactly the same number as the last Ice Age movie—which was down significantly from the second—and the stable number suggests more to come, though it might be a good idea to bring Noah Baumbach on board this time. Down the list a little, Moonrise Kingdom keeps expanding without losing much business—just 19% off the previous week—and has eked above the $30 million mark.

Lots of excitement in limited release. A costume drama about Marie Antoinette will always be arthouse catnip, and Benoït Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen didn’t disappoint, earning $18,025 per screen on four screens. Also strong—and for good reason—was the hair-raising documentary The Imposter, about a 23-year-old Frenchman assuming the identity of a missing teenager from Texas. It had the highest average of any movie this week with $20,600 on a single screen. Contrast that with Red Lights, which despite the star power of Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, and Cillian Murphy collected a pitiful $5,000 per screen on two screens—likely due to dismal reviews.