Last summer's Ice Age 3 was a quiet global phenomenon, grossing $688 million worldwide with just under $200 million at home as well. So even if no one in America cares one bit about those prehistoric creatures any more, 20th Century Fox is still going to be selling them to the world. Variety reports that the studio has set a July 13, 2012 release date for Ice Age: Continental Drift, which will, of course, be released in 3D.

No word on which voices will return or who will be in charge of directing it, but I'm pretty sure they just built these things with a formula concocted by Ray Romano years ago, so it shouldn't be too hard to pump out another. It's kind of staggering how crowded 2012 is already becoming, overloaded with every superhero from Batman and Spider-Man to the Avengers, Monsters Inc. 2 plus another new Pixar movie, and who knows what else. I guess we can find some room for a wooly mammoth in there somewhere.