ICE Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Public Enemies have both made strong starts in the US, following their opening days on Wednesday.

Ice Age 3 was the overall winner, grossing $13.8 million and beating current box office champ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen into second place. But Johnny Depp’s gangster drama also took an estimated $8.2 million, which is deemed very encouraging for a film of its type.

Ice Age’s opening figures just surpassed those of its predecessor, The Meltdown, which took $13.5 on its opening day, and beat the previous record held for an animated Wednesday opener – Shrek 2, which took $11.8 million in 2004.

Public Enemies, meanwhile, just fell short of the record held for a gangster film. The Departed managed $8.7 million on its opening day, although that was a Friday.

All three films – Public Enemies, Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 – are expected to contribute to a bumper Independence Day weekend at the US box office.

Next story: Jolie and Aniston are top female earners

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