Ice Age: Collision Course, the fifth installment in Fox and Blue Sky Studios’ lucrative franchise, bombed in its U.S opening, launching in fifth place with $21.4 million. The film has been lambasted by both critics and fans, and owns an abysmal 13% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Still, despite its critical reception, $21 million is an almost incomprehensibly tiny launch for what is considered Fox’s key animation franchise. The previous lowest opening for an Ice Age film had been Dawn of the Dinosaurs which launched with $41.7m in 2009.
Fox continues to produce the Ice Age films because they’re proven money makers, and most of that money comes from outside of the United States. In terms of global gross, the last two films in the series—Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)—made phenomenal amounts: $886.7 million and $877.2 million respectively. In both cases, an overwhelming majority of the earnings came from international sales (77.8% and 81.6%).