Two 'Ice Age' Films Are Surging On Netflix A Decade After Their Release - Forbes

Topline

Two of the worst reviewed films in the “Ice Age” franchise have found new life on Netflix over the last several weeks, despite not being available to watch in the United States and debuting years ago.

Key Facts

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" (originally released in 2009) made its Netflix Top 10 debut in the No. 3 spot the week of May 20 with 9.5 million views, and stayed there one more week before dropping to No. 4 for a combined 21.7 million views over the last three weeks.

"Ice Age: Collision Course," whose poor 2016 performance put an end to the franchise's theatrical releases, debuted at No. 7 the same week before rising to the No. 2 spot and then falling to No. 3 the week of June 3.

"Ice Age: Collision Course" has been watched 21 million times over the last three weeks—despite not being available to stream in the United States, where they’re instead available on Disney+.

It’s not clear why exactly the two films are experiencing a sudden surge in popularity, especially considering they’re among the worst-reviewed films in the franchise—”Dawn of the Dinosaurs” has an 46% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and “Collision Course” won the favor of only 18% of critics.

Both "Ice Age" films are among the top 10 movies this week in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and Mexico, among a handful of other countries.

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Surprising Fact

It’s not unheard of for years-old movies and TV shows to shoot to the top of the Netflix charts. Sometimes it’s due to renewed interest in a particular actor or the announcement of a new franchise addition, but in other cases, older films will surge for seemingly no reason.

Key Background

The first film in the franchise, "Ice Age," was released in 2002 and stared Sid the sloth, voiced by John Leguizamo, Manny the wooly mammoth (Ray Romano) and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary). The film blew its $59 million budget out of the water with a worldwide gross of $383.2 million and was generally loved by audiences and critics—it has a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed as "the best new family film of the season." The movie launched a series of video games, a traveling live arena ice show and rides at theme parks in Germany, Jakarta and Malaysia, and spawned a handful of successful spinoff films. The third film, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," was released in 2009 to become the highest grossing of the franchise—it made $886.6 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. The fifth film, however, was where the franchise lost its audience. "Ice Age: Collision Course" released in 2016 and made less than half of its predecessor ($408.5 million) despite having the largest budget of them all ($105 million). It was the last film in the series to be released in theaters and the last time most voice actors, including the original three, reprised their roles.

Tangent

In 2019, Disney purchased most of the assets of 21st Century Fox, which included the "Ice Age" franchise's original production studio 20th Century Fox. All five films are now available to stream in the United States on Disney+ and the company expanded the franchise with a standalone spin-off film called "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild" and a series called "Ice Age: Scrat Tales" in 2022.