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LOS ANGELES — Al Franken and Norm Coleman have nothing on Sam Witwicky and Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel.

In an almost ridiculously tight Independence Day weekend box-office battle between “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” featuring Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) battling evil robots, and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” in which Scrat continues to cling to his animated acorn, the contest ended just about as close as the race for the Minnesota Senate seat.

The third of the animated “Ice Age” films, in its first weekend in theaters, and the week-old “Transformers” each sold an estimated $43 million in tickets over the three-day weekend, according to box office tracking services. “Public Enemies,” a period gangster drama starring Johnny Depp, opened as the de facto No. 3 with an estimated $26.2 million in sales.

The latest “Ice Age” installment (20th Century Fox) and “Public Enemies” (Universal Pictures) arrived in theaters on Wednesday, their studios trying to take advantage of the holiday weekend. “Ice Age” earned about $67.5 million over its first five days, a solid result on par with its predecessors. “Public Enemies” earned an estimated $41 million over that stretch.

Universal has an uphill battle to make “Public Enemies” profitable. Directed by Michael Mann, the film cost about $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market worldwide. But its earnings were strong enough to validate the studio’s decision to plop a serious adult offering into multiplexes amid the event-movie maelstrom.

Adam Fogelson, Universal’s president for marketing and distribution, said he expected “Public Enemies,” which received mostly good reviews, to continue to show counter-programming strength. “There’s nothing coming in the next few weeks that scratches this particular itch,” he said.

Despite some big misses (“Land of the Lost”), the absence of Will Smith and comparatively few superheroes, this summer season is outpacing last year’s. A surprise blockbuster in “The Hangover” and enormous turnout for the “Transformers” sequel have picked up some of the slack.

Between May 1, the start of Hollywood’s summer, and Sunday, ticket sales in North America stood at about $2.3 billion, an increase of 5.5 percent over the same period last year, according to Hollywood.com, which tracks box office statistics. The event-movie season, which concludes on Labor Day, typically accounts for 40 percent of annual ticket sales.

Studios and multiplex owners can also thank price increases for part of the uptick. Many more people are paying a $3 to $5 premium for 3-D screenings than in the past, as studios serve up more films in that format. But overall attendance is also up some 3 percent, according to Hollywood.com.

Drawing lessons from what has worked so far this summer — and what hasn’t — is tricky because a wide array of intangibles, like weather, can affect results. Still, Hollywood has already reached a number of conclusions.

Trying to counter-program against Pixar, for a start, is a fool’s errand. Universal opened its well-reviewed horror picture “Drag Me to Hell” in May against Pixar’s “Up” and was washed away. This weekend “Up” became Pixar’s second highest grossing film ever in North America (after “Finding Nemo”), nudging past the $261.4 million final gross of “The Incredibles” in 2004.

Studios have also seen moviegoers balk when comedians are pushed in new directions. Eddie Murphy without a fat suit and screwball antics? Not so much, if “Imagine That” is any indication. Will Ferrell as a broad family star? “Land of the Lost” suggests that won’t be happening again soon.

And here’s a lesson for American moviegoers: It’s no longer always about you. “Angels & Demons,” Sony’s follow-up to “The DaVinci Code,” and “Terminator Salvation” were both perceived as duds at home, but have been minting money overseas.

Hollywood now shifts its attention to some big questions coming up. Among them: Has the Harry Potter franchise lost any of its firepower? Citing the screenwriters’ strike Warner Brothers last summer pushed back the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by eight months, to July 15, angering fans and perhaps allowing attention to drift.

The Harry Potter movie will also receive a limited run in Imax theaters because “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” plans to camp out in them for several more weeks.

Never bet against talking animals? Disney will test that theory on July 24 with “G-Force,” a movie about guinea pig action heroes that, judging from its trailer, will be heavy on bathroom humor. Can Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino resuscitate the Weinstein Company? “Inglourious Basterds,” set for release on Aug. 21, will bring the answer.

For the weekend two comedies aimed at opposite audiences, “The Proposal” and “The Hangover,” continued to chug along. Disney’s “Proposal,” pitched largely to a female audience, was fourth with an estimated $12.8 million in sales for the three-day weekend (bringing its cumulative total to $94.2 million). Warner’s “Hangover,” aimed mostly at men, sold about $10.4 million in tickets ($204.2 million total).