Ice Age rocks the BO

Released without any hype or hoopla, Ice Age has surprised everyone by racing to the top with a whopping $47 million, this weekend.

In two weeks, the $50 million film is all set to make a considerable profit.

The film is set 20,000 years ago, when a new ice age rises and all life forms flee from the changing world. Amidst the chaos, four misfit creatures come together. Despite their own differences, they decide to return a human infant to his father.

Unlike Shrek, Monsters,Inc or Toy Story that boasted of vocal powers of stars like Tom Hanks, Mike Myers, Billy Crystal and Eddie Murphy, Ice Age has non-stars like John Leguizamo (voice of dim sloth -- Sid) and Denis Leary (voice of devilish tiger -- Diego).

The Robert De Nero-Eddie Murphy starrer Showtime, with its strong dose of laughs and car chases, took the third place with a moderate $15 million. The modestly budgeted horror flick Resident Evil, based on a popular video game, garnered a impressive $18 million.

Costing approximately $50 million (at least $30 million less than the costs of Shrek or Monsters, Inc), Ice Age can easily reach the $150 million mark at the BO in North America.

Shrek grossed about $260 million and Monsters, Inc, about $250 million. Ice Age has the third best opening of all time after Monsters, Inc ($62.6 million) and Toy Story 2 ($57.4 million).

Ice Age's success means a lot to Twentieth Century Fox, for their other animated films -- Anastasia and Titan AE -- were damp squibs at the BO.

Though Ice Age mostly recieved mixed reviews, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution correctly predicted that parents would not "mind an hour or so of studio-managed baby-sitting".

Among the handful of critics who loved Ice Age, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman called it "...an antic and sweet-spirited pleasure."

Michael Willmington wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "It's a fast, funny picture and the worst thing you can say about it, is it's no Toy Story, no Shrek."

While Ice Age drew in mostly family audiences, Resident Evil appealed to teens, and Showtime to mostly 25-plus audiences.

In Resident Evil, Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as commando team leaders fighting against time - three hours, precisely - to shut down a super computer and save Earth from a deadly virus.

Industry trackers had expected Showtime, in which Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy play detectives in a reality television show produced by Rene Russo, to grab about $22 million. But the audiences were not impressed by the film's preoccupation with a subplot that involved endless car chases.

Like in most buddy cop films, including the two Rush Hour films, the two leading men in Showtime are not the best of pals but grudgingly learn to like each other.

The Wall Street Journal said that Murphy and De Niro were perfect mismatches. While many critics used terms such as cop out film, Los Angeles Times gave it a thumbs up.