As expected, “Ice Age: Continental Drift” won the box-office weekend, running virtually unchallenged as the only major new studio release. But its $46 million take isn’t as impressive as it could have been; the series’ first sequel, “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, had a $68 million debut six years ago.

It’s worth pointing out that in 2006, “The Meltdown” didn’t have a “Spider-Man” movie to contend with; Sony’s comic-book reboot had a good second weekend, pulling in $35 million to nudge its domestic total past $200 million in under two weeks. (Globally, it’s already earned more than half a billion dollars.)

Of course, this weekend was supposed to be relatively quiet, the lull between two of the biggest franchise properties of the last decade. The “Ice Age” movies have made money, but they’re nowhere near as profitable as Spider-Man or Batman … and with “The Dark Knight Rises” crashing into theatres on Friday, it feels like a lot of people spent this weekend battening things down and bracing for impact, at least metaphorically speaking.

Yeah, I’m not good with metaphors.