Box Office Contest Update: Independence Day Edition

“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Public Enemies” opened on Wednesday of last week, joining holdover “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” to light up the July 4 weekend box office, according to estimates reported by Box Office Mojo.

For John, the “Ice Age” five-day debut of $67.5 million is a solid, if unspectacular, opening, putting it slightly behind the three-day total for “Up” and a few million behind the five-day for the second “Ice Age” film.

John will need the dinosaurs to roam far and wide if he has any chance of catching Stu, whose “Transformers” twisted up another $42.5 million in its second weekend for a 12-day cume of $293.5 million.

Dave’s “Public Enemies” shook down the box office to the tune of $41 million over five days. Sure, this is nothing compared to the dollars thrown off by Johnny Depp’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies or Christian Bale’s “Batman” pictures, but this has to be considered good commercial news, given the Michael Mann film’s decidedly mixed reviews, R rating and period setting.

Next week: “Bruno” is unleashed for me, and “I Love You, Beth Cooper” tests John’s theory that a legion of guys (pubescent and otherwise) are believing the tease that star Hayden Panettiere drops trou and that will translate into box office gold. We’ll see!

Totals through July 5:

Stu (seven films): $952.8 million
Robert (five films): $546.2 million
Dave (seven films): $500 million
John (three films): $130.9 million

Click here for our complete picks and release dates.