Tales From The Box Office: How Ice Age Quietly Started A Multi-Billion Dollar Franchise
20th Century Studios
By Ryan Scott/March 12, 2022 4:14 pm EST
In honor of the 20th anniversary of “Ice Age” this week, we are looking back at how the movie came about as a unique effort to save a VFX house under Fox’s ownership, how much it evolved during the development process, and how the final product managed to become a big hit despite the circumstances seeming not at all in the movie’s favor, as well as what lesson’s can be learned from that success.
The movie: Ice Age
So, Wedge was hired to direct along with Carlos Saldanha, with writers Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman brought on board to punch up the comedic elements of the script, which was originally envisioned as a traditional 2D animated feature with a more serious tone. Instead, it morphed into a comedy with heart that was fully computer-animated. With a cast led by Ray Romano as Manfred, Dennis Leary as Diego, and John Leguizamo as Sid, all of the pieces were in place for the movie that would go on to define Fox’s hot streak in animation right up until the very end.
The financial journey
The lessons contained within
“I don’t believe that anyone has a monopoly on good ideas. If you worry about what other people are doing you will lose focus on your own work. We pounded on ‘Ice Age’ for as long as we had time for and then we sent it out. We will do the same for the next one. We can’t worry about competition. Besides, you aren’t competing with anyone but yourself. They have nothing to do with whether you make a good movie or not.”
