BOX OFFICE BEAT DOWN: Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 Tie for First Place with $42.5 Million

Weekend Box Office

1) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs $42.5 million
2) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $42.5 million
3) Public Enemies $26.1 million
4) The Proposal $12.7 million
5) The Hangover $10.4 million
6) Up $6.5 million
7) My Sister's Keeper $5.2 million
8) The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 $2.5 million
9) Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian $2.1 million
10) Year One $2.1 million

It was the squirrel versus the giant robot this holiday weekend as both Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen went head to head, tying for first place with $42.5 million apiece. The 20th Century Fox animated Ice Age reteamed Ray Romano, Dennis Leary, John Leguizamo, and Queen Latifah for their third adventure together, and the film was a hit with audiences. Despite it's standing at the top of the weekend charts, the film failed to bring in the same opening weekend grosses as its two predecessors. The original Ice Age earned $68 million when it opened in March of 2002, and Ice Age: The Meltdown brought in $46.3 million when it premiered in March of 2006.

Still going strong, Michael Bay's giant robot sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen held court with a second weekend take of $42.5 million. So far, it's earned $293 million domestically, becoming only the 31st highest grossing film of all time. Across the globe, Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox have helped to pull in an amazing $591 million, making it the biggest event movie of the year. It'll be tough to beat this one. Not even the star power of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale could do much to energize filmgoers over this Fourth of July weekend. Michael Mann's Public Enemies, which looks at John Dillinger's criminal life, dropped in at number three with a less than stellar take of $26.1 million. Both critics and audiences had mixed reactions to this one, and it probably won't be sticking around the box office charts for very long this summer.

Kathryn Bigalow's The Hurt Locker stayed at the top of the per-screen average charts, pulling in another $126,000 on its allotted nine screens. The only other new film released this weekend was the Parisian drama The Girl from Monaco, directed by Anne Fontaine. It managed to pull in $90,000 playing on 21 screens across the country.

Next weekend will belong to one man, and his name is Bruno. Also competing for laughs will be Chris Columbus' return to teen angst with I Love You, Beth Cooper and the romantic comedy Weather Girl. With films like these, you can pretty much bet that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen isn't going anywhere anytime soon.