`Transformers,' `Ice Age' Tie for No. 1 at $42.5M

Other studios generally were tracking "Transformers" and "Ice Age" within a few hundred thousand dollars of each other.

"It's just so close," said Bert Livingston, Fox distribution executive. "It all comes down to Sunday for us. We are elated to be in that rarefied air with one of the biggest event movies ever."

With the Fourth of July falling on Saturday, usually Hollywood's busiest day, revenues trailed off as people skipped movies to watch fireworks and go to cookouts or other outdoor activities.

"Public Enemies," starring Depp as 1930s gangster John Dillinger and Bale as FBI man Melvin Purvis, pulled in an audience of older adults who often do not pack theaters for summer's action tales, family flicks and comedies.

"We felt this was going to be the right moment to insert something with a little bit more substance into the mix," said Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing and distribution.

"Up" reached a milestone of its own, its $6.6 million weekend lifting its domestic haul to $264.9 million, passing "The Incredibles" ($261.4 million) to become No. 2 on the Disney-Pixar hit list behind "Finding Nemo" ($339.7 million).

With $10.4 million, the Warner Bros. bachelor-party comedy "The Hangover" became the year's fourth movie to cross the $200 million mark, climbing to a domestic total of $204.2 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1 (tie). "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," $42.5 million.

1 (tie). "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $42.5 million.

3. "Public Enemies," $26.2 million.

4. "The Proposal," $12.8 million.

5. "The Hangover," $10.4 million.

6. "Up," $6.6 million.

7. "My Sister's Keeper," $5.3 million.

8. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $2.5 million.

9 (tie). "Year One," $2.1 million.