Box office The film earned $196.6 million in North America and $690.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $886.7 million against a budget of $90 million. Worldwide, it is the
third-highest-grossing film of 2009, the highest-grossing animated film of 2009, the highest-grossing
Ice Age film, the
14th-highest-grossing animated film of all time. It is also the highest-grossing animated film of 2009 worldwide.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs also surpassed
Finding Nemo to have the highest international gross for an animated film. The film grossed $218.4 million during the opening weekend, and was the
highest-grossing opening for an animated film. It would hold that record for less than a decade until it was surpassed by
Incredibles 2 in 2018.
North America The film made $13.8 million on its opening day in 4,099 theaters. The film became Fox's third-largest 2009 release in North America, behind
Avatar and
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. It is the third-highest-grossing animated film of 2009. It barely surpassed its predecessor,
Ice Age: The Meltdown which earned $195.3 million three years before,
Other territories On its opening weekend it earned $151.7 million, which is the biggest opening for an animated feature. Its highest-grossing market after North America was Germany ($82.2 million), followed by France and the Maghreb region ($69.2 million), and the UK, Ireland and Malta ($56.9 million). It was the highest-grossing animated film of the year in all major countries, except Spain and Australia.
Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs boasts some excellent animation -- in particular, the dinosaurs are wonderfully realized -- but its story is tired and monotonous." On
Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four claiming that "
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the best of the three films about our friends in the inter-species herd of plucky prehistoric heroes. And it involves some of the best use of 3-D I've seen in an animated feature." Keith Phipps of
The A.V. Club graded the film a C+ claiming the sequel "throws its commitment to the era away with movie number three, a ploy sure to anger
Ice Age purists everywhere." Carrie Rickey of
The Philadelphia Inquirer enjoyed the "film's animation art is
Seuss-imaginative", but panned "the flatness of the story and indifferent voicework all the more obvious." James Dyer of
Empire gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "pacey, enjoyable yarn for the most part" and praise Pegg's performance, stating "Long-in-the-tooth characters detract from the usual high-spirited fun and frolics." Phillip French of
The Guardian was critical of the film's crude humor and felt that "most adults will find it...too long". Also writing for
The Guardian, Ben Child wrote that he found the film predictable, and despite praising the Scrat subplot, felt "there were precious few laughs and no real feeling that anyone aside from the animation team was really pushing themselves. You can pretty much tell exactly what's going to happen, and what each character is about to say...I actually found myself almost drifting off at one point." Richard Propes offered a negative review, considering the film to be the worst in the series and though in praise of the animation, was critical of the characters and storyline, feeling it "never come to life and never become involving." TheScoreCard gave the film 3 out of 10 stars and wrote "... the voice talents aren’t as popular as they were originally in 2002...the moments when it can use new character Buck or seasoned silent film star Scrat to keep audiences interested. As zany as Simon Pegg’s voicing is of the wacko weasel, and as timeless as Scrat’s existence may be, no two characters alone can save this threequel from being a weak moment for animated storytelling. They certainly can’t make another Ice Age movie entirely worth it". David Edwards questioned the film incorporation's of inaccuracies in its depiction of prehistoric life living underground, while woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers still existed. Some criticism has been directed at the film's ending where Scrat ditches Scratte for his acorn. Drew Friday considers it to be mean-spirited how "Scrat abandons his desires for love, and for a time he is happy and unpunished. But the pull of the acorn proves too much for him to resist, and he turns his back on love. And he is punished". Later years have seen opinion of the film range from mixed to positive. Retrospective reviews have ranked
Dawn of the Dinosaurs as the second-best film in the franchise, occasionally ranked ahead of the
first film. Critics and fans praised the film for its change of setting, humor, action sequences and use of 3D. Screenrant's Colin McCormick & Drew Waskett-Burt noted that the introduction of dinosaurs and the 'dino-world' offered a fresh environment for the characters. It was also nominated in the category at the
36th Saturn Awards, for "Best Animated Film." It was nominated in two more categories at the
37th Annie Awards, for "
Best Music in a Feature Production" (
John Powell) and "
Best Voice Acting in a Feature Production" (
John Leguizamo – "
Sid"). It was also nominated in the category at the
36th People's Choice Awards for "Favorite Family Movie," as well as two more categories at the
23rd Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, for "
Favorite Animated Movie" and "Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie" (
Ray Romano – "
Manny"). ==Soundtrack==