Ice Age 3 Becomes #3

... and there is much back-slapping down on Pico.

... In its 10th weekend of release, the toon has replaced "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" to become the fourth-highest international grosser of all time. And "Dawn" then topped "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on Sept. 8 for the No. 3 slot, going past $658.9 million to $660.4 million.

"Ice Age 3" won't approach the two leaders on the foreign grosses list -- "Titanic" at $1.24 billion and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $742 million. But it will probably put some further distance between it and the first Harry Potter film in coming weeks.

The third installment of the "Ice Age" franchise has topped the second -- "Ice Age: The Meltdown" by more than $200 million ...

And Two, of course, handily topped the original.

As The Wise Old Exec said to me last week: "Fox has kept their production costs way below Pixar and DreamWorks," which means more profits for Rupert and Co.

The happy side effect for animation workers is that animation, year after year, has proven to be a strong profit center for the entertainment congloms, which means our corporate masters will be eager to engage animators, tech directors, designers and other animation staff in the pursuit of more riches. As an industry kahuna said to me last week:

"You're kind of in the sweet spot, Hulett. You represent people in a part of the industry that is doing well. Some of your other union brothers and sisters can't say that right now ..."

I count my blessings, such as they are.