Five ‘Ice Age’ Movies Fill Netflix’s Top 10 Ahead Of Disney’s ‘Boiling Point’ Release

Netflix is helping Disney build an audience for 20th Century Animation’s next theatrical Ice Age movie, and both parties seem happy with the results so far.

In its third-quarter shareholder letter and Tuesday earnings call, Netflix highlighted how its new Disney licensing agreement is putting the franchise in front of subscribers on an unexpected platform ahead of Ice Age: Boiling Point‘s February 2027 theatrical release. Disney gets licensing revenue and renewed interest in its characters, while Netflix gets films its subscribers clearly want to watch.

Just how much they want to watch those films is fairly shocking. All five Ice Age films currently occupy spots in Netflix’s global English-language film Top 10.

For the week of October 12–18, the chart includes:

• No. 3: Ice Age: Collision Course — 6.3 million views
• No. 4: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs — 4.9 million
• No. 5: Ice Age — 4.8 million
• No. 8: Ice Age: Continental Drift — 4.3 million
• No. 10: Ice Age: The Meltdown — 3.6 million

Together, the five films generated 23.9 million views for the week. Add Corpse Bride at No. 6, and animation accounts for six of the chart’s ten entries.

Netflix explicitly connected the films’ performances to Disney’s upcoming sequel in this week’s investor materials. The company argues that its distribution, which it says reaches an audience approaching one billion people, makes it a valuable partner for studios looking to grow interest in their franchises.

For Disney, the potential benefit extends far beyond the licensing deal’s revenue. Putting the earlier films in front of Netflix viewers can introduce children to the franchise, bring older fans back, and build interest in next year’s return to prehistory.

There’s something funny about Netflix using its earnings presentation to explain how effectively it can help Disney sell movie tickets, especially when many of its own originals struggle to draw the audiences that high-profile acquisitions routinely attract.

That said, the arrangement also illustrates how far the streaming business has moved from the scramble to keep valuable programming exclusive to each studio’s own service.

Disney owns both Disney+ and Ice Age, yet it is finding value in making those films available to Netflix subscribers.

One footnote. Another company is worth remembering: Blue Sky Studios, the once-great East Coast outfit that made all five films. Disney acquired the company through its purchase of 21st Century Fox, and unceremoniously shut it down in 2021. The enduring love for its most popular franchise, along with the eventual success of the fantastic Nimona, a project Disney shelved with the studio before Netflix revived and released it in 2023, suggests Blue Sky had far more value than Disney’s leadership recognized at the time.