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Also generating plenty of St. Patrick's weekend box office green were the openings of Resident Evil with $18.2 million and Showtime with $15.4 million. The three new powerhouse films sent The Time Machine traveling to fourth place with $10.9 million and forced We Were Soldiers to regroup in fifth place with $8.8 million.

Driven by Ice, Evil and Showtime, key films -- those grossing $500,000 or more -- enjoyed summer sized ticket sales of over $137 million, a level distributors said had never before been achieved in the month of March. Business was up an astounding 75 percent from last year's $78 million and was up about 39 percent from nearly $99 million the previous weekend this year.

THE TOP TEN

20th Century Fox's PG rated animated feature Ice Age opened atop the chart with an astonishing ESTIMATED $47.85 million at 3,316 theaters ($14,430 per theater).

Directed by Chris Wedge, it features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary.

Ice's average per theater was the highest for any film playing this weekend.

"The March record was $32.2 million for Liar, Liar so there's a new king of March by a long shot," a very happy Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said Sunday morning.

Ice ranks as the year's biggest opening, easily beating the three-day weekend record set last week by DreamWorks' opening of The Time Machine with $22.6 million and the four-day weekend record set Feb. 15-18 by New Line's opening of John Q. with $23.6 million.

"It obviously became an event," Snyder pointed out. "I don't think anybody could have projected (over) $47 million. You'd look and you were optimistic (saying it would do) low-$30 millions. This is beyond anything (anticipated)."

Focusing on who was on hand, Snyder noted, "It did become an event. We had a lot of teenagers. We had a lot of non-family members. We got everybody. From Friday evening (exit polls we had) 70 percent family audience members -- parents and children -- and 30 percent non-family audience members. Of that 30 percent non-family, 60 percent were under 25. That's a big number. To be drawing teenagers in to an animated feature on the first weekend on their own is pretty terrific. So it bodes well."

Did they like it? "They loved it," Snyder replied. "The highest rating group were the young males, oddly enough. I don't have (the details yet this early Sunday morning). It played ethnically. It played every which way."

Asked what accounts for the film's titanic success, Snyder commented, "The movie is wonderful, but I think first and foremost the (marketing) campaign said, 'Come. This is a lot of fun. It's cool and it's hip and you're going to love it.'"

Looking ahead, what is Ice likely to wind up grossing domestically? "I have no idea yet," Snyder said, laughing. "Let's wait for that second weekend. But, boy oh boy, what a way to go!"

Clearly, Fox chose the best possible time to release the picture. "I think it helped certainly to be the first of the kid pictures of the next few weeks to hit the screens," Snyder said. "That didn't hurt."

Sony's Screen Gems label launched its R rated thriller Resident Evil from Constantin Film, New Legacy Film and Davis Films in second place to a killer ESTIMATED $18.2 million at 2,528 theaters ($7,200 per theater).

Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, it stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez and Eric Mabius.