$70.5 Million for ICE AGE: The Meltdown

ICE AGE: The Meltdown heated up the box office with a mammoth $70.5 million weekend, while audiences gave the cold shoulder to Sharon Stone, whose Basic Instinct 2 debuted with a paltry $3.2 million.According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Ice Age sequel, from 20th Century Fox, took over the top box office spot from Universal's Inside Man, which slipped to No. 2 in its second weekend with $15.7 million, raising its 10-day total to $52.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Premiering in third place was the Warner Bros. roller-skating tale ATL, starring rapper Tip Harris, which took in $12.5 million.

20th Century Fox International's animated ICE AGE: The Meltdown opened at about 5,000 screens during the weekend internationally, setting new records in many markets and grossing an estimated $43.4 million. Combined with a preview in the U.K., where Meltdown rolled up $4.1 million at 479 locations, the film's international total to date registers a mighty $47.5 million. With its domestic opening-weekend gross of $70.5 million, the sequel to 2002's Ice Age already has surpassed the $118 million mark globally. Meltdown's international premiere eclipsed that of the most recent international box-office powerhouse, Buena Vista International's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," which bowed Dec. 9 and pulled about $42 million with 2,800 prints working in 13 markets. Narnia drew an estimated $3.5 million in its latest weekend, pushing its international cume-to-date to $436 million.